Moving Forward: Cyndy McLean is Giving Back to the Hospital That Saved Her
Over the last two decades, Cyndy McLean has been cared for by a lot of health practitioners and she wants to give back to the providers who have worked to save her life following her latest health emergency.
“It’s a bit of a long story,” Cyndy said. “We have to start with my spinal cord injury.”
In 2003, when Cyndy was 33, she was on a hike with her father and dog, Ceilidh, in Northern Michigan when she and Ceilidh fell off a cliff of 80 feet.
“One minute we were there and the next we were gone,” Cyndy recalled.
After a difficult rescue mission that involved extracting Cyndy and Ceilidh from the gorge where they were hiking, she was airlifted to Minnesota to have surgery. Cyndy is now a paraplegic.
Once back in Canada, the Guelph, Ontario native recovered and completed her rehabilitation over the next six months.
“A lot had to change,” Cyndy said.
Working with RHF
Cyndy adapted to life using a wheelchair. first crossed paths with The Rick Hansen Foundation in 2003, when Rick called Cyndy while in rehab in Hamilton, Ontario. Less than a year post injury, she became an ambassador with RHF.
“The injury opened a door for a new opportunity,” Cyndy said. “I was able to become an ambassador and tell my story. I also ran the Wheels in Motion Program for ten years in Guelph.”
The Wheels in Motion Program was launched in June 2003 to raise awareness and funds to help improve the quality of life of people with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Cyndy was able to engage with youth and other ambassadors across Canada and tell her story, just one way that Cyndy has always wanted to give back to her community. She won a number of awards for her work with RHF and supporting people in her community living with spinal cord injury (ON Medal for Good Citizenship (2009) and YMCA/YWCA Women of Distinction (2006)).
Cancer Diagnosis
In 2018, Cyndy was admitted to hospital for a wound on her buttocks that wasn’t healing properly. During her 8 week recovery from surgery to resolve the wound, Cyndy had to remain on her side to let it heal. When she was finally able to flip over, they discovered a mass in her abdomen.
“They found colon cancer,” Cyndy said. She was immediately discharged from that hospital and sent to another for surgery: a liver resection and removal of 18 inches of colon.
After surgery, there were still 13 tumors in her liver, and so her treatment continued with chemotherapy.
“On my 49th birthday I had my first chemo treatment,” Cyndy explained.
Cancer Treatment & SCI
“The team had very little experience dealing with someone with an SCI who now had a cancer diagnosis.”
During her 21 chemo treatments across 10 months, Cyndy worked with her healthcare team at Grand River Regional Cancer Centre (GRRCC) to figure out how to administer chemo in someone with a SCI.
“There was a lot of uncertainty. My medical team and I just decided to problem solve as things cropped up. The doctors had no idea how I was going to respond and what limitations I might have ,” Cyndy explained.
She explained that some of the challenges were functional.
“With my chemo routine I would go to the hospital for my infusion, and then would be sent home with a chemo bottle – so you have the chemo attached to you for 48 hours. This was logistically challenging, to wheel around and transfer and not accidentally pull the line attached to the port in my chest or spill it,” she said. “Also, hydration is so important when you have chemotherapy, which is tricky when you have a paralyzed bladder.”
Cyndy worked alongside her team to meet these challenges head on, whether it was practicing transfers with the IV attached to her, or planning her bathroom trips frequently, she made it through the months of chemotherapy.
For Cyndy, chemo eliminated most of the lesions that were in her liver. Four years later, one doubled in size and Cyndy had to go back in for another liver resection.
“Walking is one of the best things you can do to recover from surgery. So, what do you do if you can’t walk?” Cyndy said. “You can’t get the benefit of circulation the same way.”
Over the years of care, Cyndy and her medical team worked to ensure Cyndy got the care she needed and worked with her SCI to provide the best care possible.
While still in surveillance to ensure nothing recurs, Cyndy is now healthy and feeling well.
Giving Back to the Cancer Centre
Between September 9 - 30 Cyndy will complete 10 handcycle rides of 21km each in communities served by the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre (GRRCC). The fundraiser, called 10x21: Cycling 4 Chemo Chairs, is an initiative to raise funds to support the purchase of new chemo chairs for GRRCC.
“By doing rides in different communities that are served by the cancer centre, I can show that piece of their story. I am also recruiting community ambassadors in the various communities to share how different people navigate cancer care,” Cyndy said.
Since her SCI, Cyndy has always enjoyed handcycling and is excited to begin the journey while raising awareness and funds for the cancer centre that saved her life.
“It felt like the right thing to do to honour all these people that took great care of me.”
