Reprinted with permission Barbara Simpson, Telegraph – Journal, Brunswick News Inc.  

As Ross Davidson stood atop Thailand’s highest peak, he was flooded by a wave of emotions. He was exhausted, but he was proud, not just of surviving the daylong gruelling bike ride and hike to the top of the peak but of beating cancer to make this moment a reality.

Only four years earlier, Davidson underwent “the mother of all operations”, a total pelvic exenteration, as a last-ditch effort in his fight against Stage 3 rectal cancer. The father of two would need to learn to live with two ostomy bags to collect his urine and stool.

But it was in his darkest moment, as the former Saint Johner was tube fed and given morphine for his pain in an English hospital, that he made a promise to himself. One day he’d return to Thailand, a country he spent time in when he lived in Japan in the early 1990’s.

Little did he know it’d be by bike after he quit his IT career, studied to be a personal trainer and became an avid cyclist: all after “the sledgehammer of clarity” known as cancer.

“(Cancer) has been a hideous experience, and I just felt internally that I needed to do something to show that I was still alive and still here and am still breathing and still enjoying life,” Davidson said of his trip just days after returning from Thailand.

The 57-year-old clocked a total of 1,160 kilometres by bike and climbed 16,500 metres as he traversed northwestern Thailand over the course of 10 days. He was joined by his brother Lee and their friend Scot Wheeler, both of Vancouver.

The trio ‘warmed up’ with a three-day cycling and climbing trek to Chiang Mai, home of the famous Mae Hong Son Loop. Davidson and his team were ready to conquer, by bicycle, what was a popular path for motorbikes. It took them seven days, including one day for rest, but after 630 kilometres of cycling and 12,700 metres of climbing, they reached the summit of Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest peak.

“It was no walk in the park,” Davidson said of the trek, “It was something that, with or without stomas, if you weren’t trained for this, you’d never complete it.”

Cheering Davidson and his team along were friends, family and fellow “double baggers”; a term used in the ostomy community to refer to people living with two stomas, from around the world who followed along through his regular social media posts.

Davidson heard from people who have stomas and their loved ones about how inspirational his story was for them. He’s quick to say his trip was solely to prove something to himself, but he’s pleased that he can shine a light on what’s possible for those who are adjusting to life with a stoma.

“When I’m on that bicycle, I don’t have two stomas. I’m just cycling along and I forget about them,” Davidson said in a phone interview from his home in Brighton, a seaside community about 80 kilometres south of London, England.

“If you just embrace life and what you can do, having two stomas doesn’t hold you back. Sure, it’s something that you have to deal with and take into account for planning, but it needn’t be a hindrance that precludes you from doing things.” His former classmates at Kennebecasis Valley and Simonds high schools in the 1980’s have been an ongoing source of support throughout Davidson’s cancer journey. They even pitched in to buy a TRX suspension training set for him once so he could get back into fitness.

It’s been a long road toward recovering from cancer, something his partner Jo, his teenagers, son Freddy and daughter Erin have witnessed firsthand. Before his surgery, Davidson had already undergone 12 weeks of chemotherapy followed by five weeks of chemoradiotherapy.

Post surgery, Davidson was still facing health challenges with one of his kidneys. It almost delayed his trip, but when he got the green light to go, he bought a ‘rescue pack’ of antibiotics and drank five to six litres of fluid a day.

*rescue pack – A “rescue pack” of antibiotics is a standby supply of medication prescribed in advance for certain patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to use during a flare-up. It typically includes a course of antibiotics and a course of oral corticosteroids (steroid tablets). 

“I think my children have hopefully seen that bad things happen, and if you accept them and keep going and don’t crumble under the weight of it, you can have a good outcome.”

This story was sourced by Lisa Gausman, Ostomy Canada Senior Editor.