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Calgary

For Harrison, it was the latest complication in a lifetime of medical difficulties. At age two, doctors found a tumour on his spine and he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer that commonly affects young children. After surgery and a long recovery, he was deemed cancer-free at age five. But when he was 15 he suffered a stroke and lost some of his vision. He had another stroke at 17.

Each time he fought back against the odds, and he was determined to do it again. When he awoke from a medically induced coma following the stroke in 2013, Harrison made a decision to someday resume the charity trek. Part of it was the need to fulfil his dream but he was also driven by the death of a young woman with an aneurysm in the ICU bed beside him.

“I had a huge realization that I had to finish it, not for myself, but for her and everyone else who didn’t get a chance to survive.”

It took Harrison three years to recover. His left hand still remains mostly paralyzed and his balance is affected. For that reason, he opted to mostly cycle the remaining 1,260 kilometres to the coast.

“It was still incredibly dangerous. I should have waited until my skills and mobility were better. On the side of the highway, every time a big truck passed or a gust of wind blew, it would throw me off balance and I’d have a two-and-a-half- to four-foot wobble.”

With his stepfather Jason Green driving behind him, Harrison resumed his trek on Aug. 2 in Lake Louise. Some days he managed 40 to 50 kilometres; other days he could hardly get on the bike.

“It depended on the day. We did the best we could.”

Tired and sore, he made it to Vancouver Island on Sept. 7 where he triumphantly finished, with his formerly paralyzed arm in the air.

“When you wake up like that, you think ‘Well that’s done then.’ But it doesn’t have to be. I want to travel now and tell my story. I want to inspire people.”

mjarvie@postmedia.com