Brain injury survivor Lori White sets out on awareness ride from Montreal to Halifax

Since she was 14 years old, cyclist Lori White has encountered more than a few obstacles and hardships in life, having been afflicted by a brain injury following a severe automobile accent during her youth. High school was a struggle, she describes, an isolating experience that resulted in failing grades school. Hit hard by the symptoms of her condition, those struggles weren’t just academic, she says, but emotional and social, too.

The situation, she describes, wasn’t helped by the fact that her injury went undiagnosed at the time. As a result, her default disposition saw her addled with shame, hopelessness, fear, abandonment, feelings of loss, and “feeling as though there was quite literally a piece of me missing. I did not have the confidence to even get a job or my driver’s license,” she says. “At 18, I applied for my first job with the help of my basketball coach, and my friend Karen. It took both of their support and assistance with me so that I would have the patience and skill set to fill out a simple job application.”

“I got the job, but I remember feeling so stupid since the process was so incredibly difficult and I felt like no one understood that.”

After becoming a teacher, only then did a diagnosis finally come: moderate traumatic brain injury, something about which she only became aware a full ten years after her accident. Despite the illumination of the diagnosis, White felt nonetheless that those years — when she lived in the dark, not understanding her own condition — were years of her life she’d never get back.

However, she said, “nor [would] I want to, as they are a part of my journey. But what I do want is to bring education and awareness surrounding the issues of brain injury, to decrease the possibility of someone suffering as long as I did.”

With that impetus driving her, she set out by bike on a ride across eastern Canada, a journey for awareness that she calls “Riding Away Stigma.”

“This ride will test my perseverance, dedication, courage and ability to be vulnerable and overcome adversity in order to accomplish my goal,” she writes. “I want to draw more awareness to brain injuries and mental health issues. I can’t stress enough the significance of early diagnosis of brain injury and proper diagnosis of mental health issues, as it provides the afflicted persons and their families with the knowledge and tools needed to aid them in life.”

In total, White’s ride for awareness will take her 1,340 km, starting in Montreal and ending in Halifax, with stops scheduled in place like Trois-Rivières, Que., Edmundston, NB, and Salisbury, NS. Each leg of the trip is meticulously planned, calculated down to the kilometre. En route, her journey will include updates of each leg and waypoint via social media, with a blog detailing her adventure for awareness as she rides along. “I am extremely excited to share this experience with those who follow, for what this ride means for me personally, and for the potential it has to empower everyone needed to make positive changes in one another’s lives.”

Those seeking to make donations of time or money to White’s journey can do so by visiting her website.