His wife in intensive care in a London hospital with life-changing injuries, Theo Sawchuk is trying not only to make sense of it, but also to make some good come out of it.

Julie Sawchuk isn’t just an avid cyclist, athlete and mother of two: She’s also an activist for the sport she loves.

Just recently, the Wingham high-school biology teacher had written a letter to a local newspaper, advocating bicycle safety and imploring drivers to show cyclists more respect.

Then, last Wednesday, Sawchuk was struck by a vehicle while cycling along a road in Huron County, north of London.

She never got around to sending her letter to the paper in Blyth.

Theo Sawchuk spent the holiday long weekend going back and forth to the hospital. But he also wants to pick up where his wife left off, getting out the safety message she never sent.

“I have been going for several days now (to the hospital), trying not to think about anything except what is going on with Julie, day-by-day,” he said.

“But I am angry about it, that Julie wrote her letter and this happened and that is why it is important we speak out. We have to take time to say something about this.”

Julie, 41, mother to Eleanor, 12, and Oliver, 9, suffered a broken neck and broken back.

It’s too soon to say what her life will be like now, but her husband calls the crash “life-altering.”

She will remain in intensive care at the London Health Sciences Centre for about two more weeks, said family members.

Her husband said he’s speaking out, because he wants to see cyclists treated with the same respect drivers give motorized vehicles — a wide berth, especially when passing.

“The law states there must be a metre when passing the cyclist, which is not enough,” said Theo Sawchuk.

“You would not pass within a metre of a motorcycle. The car should cross the yellow line” when passing a cyclist, he added.

The “psychological” factor that makes it hard for drivers to move over for a bicycle, has to end, he said: “It is the way we drive, and legally and morally we feel we are OK in our lane.”

It’s also a municipal-planning issue, with a need for communities to do a better job accomodating cyclists, he said.

Some rural roads have wide, paved shoulders for farm equipment, making them equipped for cycling.

But that’s lacking in Huron County, said David Swift, Julie’s brother.

“The wider shoulders make me feel a lot safer,” he said.

“I think she wants to raise awareness, she wants people to pay attention. They need to follow the law.”

Last Wednesday, Julie Sawchuk left her Blythe-area home for a two-hour bike ride, a 30-kilometre loop training for the Goderich triathlon.

Riding east on Highway 25 between Carlow and Auburn, she was struck from behind by a motorist, said Swift.

A man from Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh was charged, OPP say.

“The back wheel was mangled, she was thrown forward into the air and ended up in the ditch,” said Swift.

Julie Sawchuk’s letter, meant as a letter to the editor, described close calls she’s had before as a rider — and how she feared exactly the kind of crash that’s left her hospitalized.

She suffered broken vertebrae in two places. One fragment is wedged into her spine, and the base of her skull is fractured.

She had three-and-a-half hours of plastic surgery on her face and five hours of spinal surgery.

“We are thankful she is alive,” said Swift.

“We don’t know yet how serious the injuries are, but the helmet saved her life.”

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FROM JULIE SAWCHUK’S LETTER

Close calls she described in the letter she never sent:

“While travelling east on Blyth Road (between Auburn and Blyth) I was passed by a transport truck so closely it made me scream. I was already on the white line on the right side of the road and this truck’s rear tires were also touching the white line . . . it scared me so much I could hardly think straight. It really frightened me.”

Two other times when passing vehicles came close to striking her: “There are many reasons that this scary near-death experience happened . . . Drivers think they can get away with it — and don’t know that killing a cyclist will send them to jail.”

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Go to forjulie.com