As if going through cancer and a subsequent bicycle journey across Canada isn’t physically, mentally and emotionally enough to handle, Montreal’s Stephen Dartt had his bicycle - which he was using for a cancer research fundraiser - stolen while passing through Sault Ste. Marie.
Dartt and his wife Marie arrived in the Sault Tuesday, parking their RV in the Walmart parking lot on Great Northern Road.
They awakened Wednesday to discover his bicycle, as well as the seat of another bicycle in his possession, had been stolen from the rack mounted on the outside of the RV.
“It was so close to us. We were sleeping in the RV and somewhere behind us, someone’s cutting with wire cutters and bolt cutters, cutting off locks and stealing my bike right behind us,” Dartt said, speaking to SooToday Thursday.
“It gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. I was ready to pack it in. I really was. It deflated me. Thank God for my wife and all the people following me because it is something I really want to finish.”
Facebook friends following Dartt’s Trek For Hope expressed their shock and sympathy, and Dartt was able to buy a good quality used bicycle with the help of local bike shop Velorution Thursday.
“Everybody pulled together and donations came in for me to get another bike. We were lucky enough to go to the bike shop, they made a phone call and I ended up buying a used bike from one of their customers,” Dartt said.
“It’s about me getting across the country and raising awareness for this cancer that I have, which is known as cholangiocarcinoma. It is a very rare and aggressive cancer. It’s bile duct cancer. There’s only 13 people in Canada that have this cancer presently. It’s a genetic cancer, so they say.”
The prognosis for those afflicted with cholangiocarcinoma is not good. Even when detected early, the five year survival rate for people with that type of cancer is less than 25 per cent.
“I’m getting pains in my stomach. I don't know if the cancer is progressing, but it’s been getting tougher,” Dartt said.
“There is zero research in Canada. There’s a bit of research in the United States, but this cancer is becoming more frequent. I believe it’s an industrial pollutant cancer.”
Dartt, 57, worked in the aerospace industry as an aviation inspector for Bombardier after serving in the Canadian Armed Forces where he worked on Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds planes.
“That could be where the cancer started. The products we used were known to cause cancer...we used these highly toxic products, and it came down to them taking half my liver out.”
He was diagnosed with cancer in 2020.
“I had an operation, an infection came in, then right after the operation was chemotherapy for eight months (ending in May).”
“It became my goal to raise some awareness, but I didn’t know how to go about it.”
Dartt decided to purchase an RV, his wife Marie driving while he cycles on his Trek For Hope, which he began in Abbotsford, BC in June, aiming to finish in his home city of Montreal.
His Trek For Hope GoFundMe page shows he has raised, as of Thursday, $12,702 of a $30,000 fundraising goal, with all funds raised to go to cancer research and Children’s Wish Foundation.
“We went into our savings (to buy an RV). The whole point of this is to raise funds for cancer research. Everything that’s donated is going to where we say it will. It’s not a vacation we’re on,” Dartt said.
“I had a niece that passed 10 years ago. She was six years old and athletic but she had a tumour, and the Children’s Wish Foundation flew her to Florida. They made her day, they made her week.”
“(Later) I saw two young girls in a doctor’s waiting room. They were doing chemotherapy like what I had been doing and I thought ‘wow, something’s got to be done.’ If I can make a little bit of a difference in this world, and just give back, maybe raise some awareness, maybe some type of research into my rare cancer might cure some other cancers that are out there right now.”
“I’m not a cyclist at all,” Dartt chuckled.
“It’s definitely not easy. I’ve bitten off a bit more than I can chew. I don’t know where I got the energy from. I made it through the Rockies, I made it through the provinces, I made it here, approximately 3,200 kilometres with 1,800 kilometres to go. I’m doing a bit of a detour to Toronto to raise some more awareness.”
“I couldn’t pack it in (after the bike theft),” Dartt said, speaking to us Thursday from his RV, resting on St. Joseph Island after an emotionally wrenching couple of days.
Dartt said from now on he’ll be keeping both his bicycles inside his RV.
He said he has regained his motivation to reach his home in Montreal and finish his Trek For Hope.
“There’s too many people involved - friends, family, people we’ve met on the way who've inspired me, prayed for me. I can’t give it up. How could I let a crime make me give up this great cause?”
Dartt said the name of his fundraiser - ‘Trek For Hope’ - seems appropriate after seeing how others helped him to get another bicycle to complete his journey.
“It brings tears to my eyes. There’s bad people in this world but the good ones overpower them by far, seeing the outcome over the past couple of days. I respect the good people in Sault Ste. Marie.”
Dartt’s journey may be followed on Facebook.