Gord grew up in the east end of Toronto in the 50s and 60s where he was always active and enjoyed riding his first bike and playing lacrosse, amongst other sports. As he started working he remained active and starting running in the mid 70s to burn off energy and stay active. In the early 90s running friends were riding and Gord decided to buy his first bike.
Soon riding overtook his running time and he joined his new friends in an annual weekly June trip to the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York.
Over the years this unique get together found the group rebonding every June adding more friends as the group expanded each year - creating even more cycling stories and memories. Twice Gord travelled to Girona, Spain to ride with some of the people from the Finger Lakes group.
In mid-2020 following up on persistent balance issues Gord was diagnosed with ALS. As he said, “I didn’t see this coming”. Neither did his wife or his daughters. Since then, he has been on a number of experimental drug treatments that attempt to slow the progression of this terminal illness, as well as other drug treatments to help manage some of the side effects.
After Gord sold his road bike, the ALS Society was able to get him other, not so glorious, modes of transportation. If he’s out and about with his wife or daughters, the walker or the transport chair are very handy. They’re light and easy to lift out of the trunk. But when he wants to cruise the neighbourhood, it’s the electric scooter he turns to. Not exactly something he might ride to the Finger Lakes, but he loves how it gets him out on the pathways and gives him another, albeit much slower, kind of joy.
This past May some of the cycling friends headed out west to cycle through Saskatchewan and Alberta. The highpoint was a stop in Calgary to visit their old friend Gord and share a meal together. But this wasn’t just another road trip for Gord’s bike buddies. They combined their love of cycling and their love of Gord and were able to raise funds in support the ALS Society of Alberta so that more walkers, transport chairs, and scooters might help more people affected by ALS enjoy a slower kind of joy.