Rick Hansen wheeled his way around 34 countries in 26 months, captivating millions with his courage as he scaled incredible physical and mental heights.
But before all that in March 1985, only minutes after Hansen and his small team set out from a Vancouver shopping mall to launch the Man in Motion World Tour, a “smashing” early setback in front of hundreds of well-wishers occurred.
“They were thinking, ‘Now he can’t even get out of the parking lot. Good luck,’” a smiling Hansen remembered Friday, describing the moment a large crate nailed to the top of the team’s motor home struck an overpass and came crashing down on the road in front of national media. Hansen’s only spare wheelchair was destroyed in the mishap, which kicked off a rocky start to what became a global phenomenon.
Two days later, after the tour had crossed into the U.S., Hansen was already injured and questioning whether he could continue.
“I just thought about quitting,” he said, on the struggle to wheel more than 100 km per day in miserable conditions. “Cold, rain, wind, and I was struggling just to finish the day. I had tendonitis in my wrist and elbows and shoulders. I had ice packs on them.”
Despite doubting himself, he pressed on, while his team attempted to spread the word about what Hansen was trying to do, fundraising in an era without smart phones, email, or internet.
“We had to use foreign affairs and different networks, and we had to send telexes and mail and make phone calls. It was unbelievably challenging,” Hansen said. “The biggest issue was trying to get people to believe it was possible. Could someone in a wheelchair, in an era where people had trouble thinking whether they could wheel across the street or not, could someone actually wheel around the world and make a difference?”
The answer, of course, was yes. Hansen would travel more than 40,000 km and the tour would raise $26 million toward finding a cure for paralysis after spinal cord injury.
“The best moment for me outside of Canada was the miracle we were accepted into China. The country of China embraced us,” Hansen remembers. “Symbolically, wheeling up the Great Wall of China to get to the highest point was an amazing moment.
“The biggest part of China was the millions of people who lined the streets,” he continued. “Who came out to wonder is it true? In an era when people were disabilities were embarrassments.”
Along with helping people recover from spinal cord injuries, Hansen’s mission has been to prove how much people with disabilities can truly accomplish.
“If you don’t try, you’ll never know. Some of the biggest dreams in the world are killed by fear of failure or skepticism or self-doubt,” he said.
Hansen says perceptions have changed, but through the Rick Hansen Foundation, he is more inspired than ever to raise awareness about making our world more accessible.
“Buildings are being built today that aren’t accessible, if you can believe it. They’re built to a minimum code at best,” Hansen said. “One of the biggest priorities for our foundation right now going forward is to actually encourage people who are architects, engineers, planners, developers to build buildings that are inclusive for everybody, so that we can actually lift up the capacity of the eight million Canadians and the 1.3 billion people on the planet living with a disability, and they can contribute to society, and not just knock on the door to get in.”
Hansen is optimistic wheelchairs will one day only be found in museums. He is grateful Canadians still tell him they’re moved by the spirit of his original dream.
“It’s a privilege. As someone who wanted to be a teacher, that was my dream before I got distracted on the Man in Motion tour, to help people on their journeys,” he said, his voice filling with emotion. “I’m honoured. It’s been a great life, and looking back 40 years ago, wow. That changed everything.”
