Blind man prepares to cycle across Canada
Posted Jun 20, 2013 06:52:41 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Cycling across Canada would be a difficult trek for anyone, even more so for Craig Aucoin who is blind, but that’s what he plans to do.
He’ll be doing it with his friend and training partner Lloyd McLean on the Altena Janus, a ten foot long, back-to-back recumbent tandem bicycle.
Aucoin said he hit a low point more than a decade ago when he weighed 240 pounds and had low self-esteem, but in the past five years he’s started working out and eating healthy.
“I just want to show people, anyone with a disability and people without disabilities that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it,” he said.
Aucoin told News 95.7 he gets his inspiration from people like Rick Hansen and Terry Fox.
He’ll be raising funds and awareness for the three charities he credits for changing his life: the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind and YMCA’s in Canada.
“I whittled it down to the three charities that have really helped me in my life,” he said.
Warren Spiers, Atlantic Director of Fund Development for CNIB said the ride means a lot for the organization.
“There is a negative perception that when one loses vision, they can’t do the things they’d like in life,” he said. “Craig is dispelling that myth and living his life to the fullest.”
He added Canadians can use another story like this.
“He and Lloyd McLean, his cycling partner, are two really good down-to-earth Canadian guys who are doing this for all the right reasons and I think as Canadians get to see what they’re doing and get a feel for what the guys are like, they’ll be really inspired,” he explained.
Dave MacIntyre, CEO of the YMCA Pictou County where the friends work out, said the duo is extremely dedicated.
“They’ve be training very hard, they don’t miss a day,” he said. “I have no doubt in my mind that they’re going to succeed as this, failure is not even an option for them. To watch how far they’ve come in the last year and how far Craig has come in the last few years is really great.”
Aucoin and McLean plan to start the grueling 85 day, 8,200 km cross-Canada journey in Newfoundland in August.
