Cycling across Canada on a normal road bike is a major undertaking, but doing it on a bike that has no suspension and only one speed is something else.
Mat Fee, born in Duncan, is riding his BMX coast to coast to show others overcoming addiction and living life the way you want to is possible.
Starting in Halifax on May 1, Fee is headed for Montreal and expects to finish his nation-wide tour at the beginning of October here in Victoria at the Legislature building.
As a child Fee was sexually abused. Too young to comprehend what had happened, he blocked out the memories and went on living.
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“I ended up falling in love with drugs and alcohol and that became my life,” he says.
Trying various treatment centres, it wasn’t until the seventh time he found a way back to himself. A year into Fee’s stay at the John Volken Academy, a therapeutic recovery community with centres in Seattle, Vancouver and Phoenix, he was able to uncover those repressed memories and begin to process them in a healthy way.
Before finding the academy, Fee describes a labyrinth of walls with constant, overpowering anxiety that made his life “hell.” During his two years at the academy, Fee recalls writing a letter that changed everything as he began to realize the importance of human connection.
“It was a really nice sunny day, everybody was sitting outside and I remember just feeling really happy that I was there and around all these people who were happy too,” he says. “That single day, that single moment, just really stuck with me and I was able to carry that with me.”
Riding 60 to 100 kilometers a day, Fee says it hasn’t been easy, especially with a head wind he’s been facing in the eastern provinces.
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“There was one day where I was going over the hills in New Brunswick and I was pedalling as hard as I could just to go down the hill,” he says with a laugh. “It was brutal.”
Support from strangers on social media keeps him going.
While there is a gofundme to help support his cause, Fee wants to stress that the ride is more about raising awareness than funds.
“There’s a lot of shame and guilt in addicts, if the stigma gets broken down — even just a little bit — so someone can feel safe enough to reach out and ask for help … that’s what I’m trying to do,” he says.
To follow Fee’s journey visit @cyclingforsobriety on Instagram or follow his Facebook page Cycling For Sobriety or visit cyclingforsobriety.org.
kendra.crighton@blackpress.caFollow us on Instagram
