Bob Whyte remembers the day he first saw Rick Hansen like it was yesterday.
He and a friend travelled to Mission to catch a glimpse of the Man in Motion on his triumphant return after wheeling around the world to raise money for spinal cord research, and they knew it would be next to impossible to squeeze in to the crowds that would later be waiting for him on Thermal Drive in Coquitlam.
"It was great, it was absolutely great," Whyte recalled. "I was so proud of him, to know he had a spinal cord injury" and had wheeled around the world.
It was in the spring of 1987, two years after a skiing accident rendered Whyte a quadriplegic. The accident struck in the prime of Whyte's life. He was 45, a rising star as a western Canadian sales manager in a Fortune 100 company and an avid sports enthusiast, typically waking in the pre-dawn hours to squeeze in a game of squash or handball before heading to the office.
Whyte and his wife, Sharon, were also busy raising three children, with weekends and vacations spent skiing at Big White or fishing in the Gulf Islands.
Then in the spring of 1985, Whyte convinced a colleague to stay on the West Coast for the weekend before going to a sales meeting in Edmonton so they could head up to Whistler for a day of skiing.
The accident on that May 5 left Whyte a quadriplegic but a relatively lucky one. Three weeks later, he started to get some feeling back and, in October, just seven months after the accident, he walked out of the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver.
"The fellow I was with [that day in Mission] was a paraplegic, and I was a walking quadriplegic. We found a spot on the side of the road and there were people lining up all the way out there."
Whyte had been busy raising money for the Rick Hansen Foundation - more than $1,600 from friends and colleagues who never expected a paralyzed man could swim, let alone so many laps.
"They thought I was swimming in a regular pool," Whyte winked, revealing his fundraising drive actually took place in a pool where the "lengths" were more like widths.
No matter, Whyte said. He collected the money and brought the cheque in person to the Rick Hansen Foundation office in Vancouver.
"I was so proud of it, to raise that money," he said.
He'll be feeling that same sense of pride next week when he joins the Rick Hansen medal relay, carrying the medal from Shaughnessy Street to celebrations at Leigh Square on May 17.
Whyte said he was thrilled to hear the news he was chosen for the relay after being nominated by Bruce Hansen, president of the Wilson Centre Advisory Association.
"I'm really excited, absolutely," Whyte said. "Rick Hansen has done a phenomenal thing, he's raised a lot of money for spinal cord research... and he's made people aware of spinal cord injuries.
"He's an inspiration to everybody and proof that life's not over when you have a spinal cord injury."
