Bio

The Full Story of My Stroke

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On October 18, 2006, my whole life changed forever. I felt a sharp pain in my head — then everything went black. I woke up a month later at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, having suffered a severe brain hemorrhage. My world had turned upside down.

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Over the next five months, I underwent a grueling recovery, relearning how to walk and talk. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But with each passing day, I pushed myself harder, determined to regain my independence and return to the life I loved.

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After leaving the hospital, I spent a year at an intensive rehabilitation facility in Ponoka, constantly discovering new ways to make my life more fulfilling.

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Before the stroke, I was an avid outdoor enthusiast — skiing, climbing, mountain biking. Afterward, I had to learn how to participate in these activities differently, adapting to my physical limitations and developing new techniques. I found new passions like adaptive climbing and power wheelchair hockey. I even became something of an adrenaline junkie — skydiving, rappelling, and rafting are now among my favorite adventures.

 

My New Reality

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The past two years have been the hardest of my life. I was homeless for five months, living in a shelter because surviving the middle of a Canadian winter alone with my condition was not an option. I lost everything — including my phone. Slowly, things got better. I began rebuilding my life, stripped of the superficial things I once thought mattered. I am now a resident of an assisted living facility for people with disabilities at Inclusio.

 

Cross-Country Skiing

 

From age 10 to 18, cross-country skiing wasn’t just a sport — it was a way of life. Competing at a high level throughout my youth, I earned multiple provincial and Eastern Canadian titles and proudly represented the Quebec team. The highlight of those years came at the Junior Canadian Championship, where I claimed a bronze medal. I attended a sports study program in high school, and during my teens, the sport consumed me entirely — it shaped my discipline, my drive, and my understanding of what it means to push past your limits.

 

Journeyman Mechanic

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My career in the trades started at the bottom — literally washing cars at a Chrysler dealership. Two months in, my work ethic earned me a promotion to apprentice mechanic, and I never looked back. I fast-tracked my credentials by successfully challenging the final-year exam of my apprenticeship program, earning my journeyman ticket ahead of schedule. I developed a specialty in electrical systems and complex diagnostics — the kind of problems other mechanics handed off. I thrived on them.

 

ACMG Rock Guide

 

In what feels like a previous life, I built a career as a professional mountain guide. I obtained my ACMG diploma from Thompson Rivers University in 2002 and went on to work both as an employed and independent guide. I even became the youngest examiner for the ACMG’s new rock guide certification — a milestone that spoke to how quickly and deeply I had grown in the field. A promising career stretched out ahead of me. Then, as it sometimes does, destiny had other plans.

 

Writer

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Over the past 15 or so years, writing has been both a creative outlet and a lifeline — the reality of living with a disability is that you find ways to fill your time with meaning. Over the course of a decade, I wrote my memoir, Mountaineer to Stroke Survivor: Never Give Up, which was published by Olympia Publishers. The response from people around me was encouraging, and the book was even featured in Gripped Magazine. Despite that, the publisher discontinued it due to lack of commercial interest. The world, it seems, was not yet ready to confront the truth about disability or engage with subjects still considered taboo.

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Now, I am channeling that hard-won wisdom into something new. I am crafting a reality and fantasy story—one that seamlessly merges the world as it is with the world as it could be. It has the potential to be an incredible movie, and I believe some of my story might eventually make it to the big screen.

 

Pianist

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I took ten years of piano lessons growing up. My stroke took away my ability to play, but with time and effort, the shakiness in my left hand has become controlled enough to make a comeback. My right hand is a different story — however, there is a wealth of music written for the left hand alone, and I plan to explore all of it. I aspire to become a good beginner left-hand pianist — not for audiences, but for myself. I am self-taught, drawing on years of prior experience.

 

Piano is a peaceful way to pass the time in my apartment because there isn't much else for a lonely disabled person.  

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