Award-winning author Gordon Kirkland will be the official medal bearer for the Pitt Meadows leg of The Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Relay.
Kirkland built a successful career as an author after suffering a spinal cord injury in a 1990 automobile accident.
He successfully moved from a wheelchair to crutches clipped onto his forearms for 18 of the last 22 years. He is now once again confined to a wheelchair. He is currently a patient in Eagle Ridge Hospital with an undisclosed condition but will be allowed to temporarily leave the hospital to participate in the event. His wife Diane and his son Mike will assist him along the way if necessary.
“I guess now that I am permanently on wheels, they will have to be my pit crew,” he said. “Hopefully, they won’t have to put a hydraulic jack under me and pull off my tires.”
Called “one of North America’s premier humorists,’ Kirkland’s mission is to show that while a spinal cord injury may impact several senses, it does not have to affect one’s sense of humour.
On May 17, the medal will travel from Maple Ridge to Pitt Meadows. Kirkland will wheel it from the corner of 119th Avenue and Harris Road to Pitt Meadows Spirit Square starting shortly after noon.
• The celebration at Spirit Square in Pitt Meadows runs from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.