Surviving not one, not even 10, but 28 cancer surgeries, Randolph Westphal is spreading hope around the world, one pedal at a time.
The 55-year-old cancer survivor from Frankfurt, Germany is on his sixth world tour, which brought him through Vernon Wednesday.
He has been waging a personal battle with cancer since he was first diagnosed in 1987.
“They gave me six months to live,” said Westphal, who credits a positive attitude and optimistic outlook to his survival.
It’s this outlook that Westphal is determined to spread to others battling cancer. And he has done just that by circling the world five times now.
“Don’t sit in the corner and wait for your death,” he urges.
“There is life with cancer.”
He is living proof.
But cancer isn’t the only obstacle Westphal has overcome.
On one of his tours, Westphal had a near fatal accident in Argentina when he and his first dog, Shir Khan, were struck down in daylight by a hit and run driver.
The accident killed his faithful husky and tore Westphal’s left leg from his body.
Doctors managed to re-attach his leg, and 48 operations later he was back on the road.
Now travelling with his two huskies, Nanook and Chinook, Westphal has touched countless lives on his journey, which also brings him to hospitals, cancer centres and universities to speak.
“Thousands of people find hope in my story,” he smiles, as that is exactly what he strives to do – give people hope so they never give up.
In Scotland he’s been called Braveheart and in the U.S. he’s been named the living legend. But he has a different name for himself.
And it’s exactly what you’ll hear when you wish him good luck on his journey.
“I am the luck,” said Westphal who also lives with a virus.
“A cat has nine lives, I have much more.”
His worldwide journeys are enough to earn some of his titles.
Among the more than 205,000 kilometres of road he has travelled, Westphal has rode in every extreme.
“The worst was minus 51 weather.”
And he does it all on a budget of less than $20 a day (feeding himself and his dogs). Which is why donations are greatly accepted, to help Westphal continue his journey of spreading hope.
Vernon’s Prestige Hotel went even further to help Westphal’s journey by giving him a complimentary room to rest for the night.
Westphal’s sixth world tour began May 4 in the U.S. and since visiting the Okanagan he has travelled up to Salmon Arm and Revelstoke on his journey north to Alaska.
For more information visit www.randolph-westphal.de
