On a bike with fat tyres built for the snow of a Canadian winter, Canberra builder Andrew Kerec is about the ride from the western-most point to the eastern-most point of Australia, across the dunes of the Simpson Desert, and then back down to Canberra - all for his dad Lud and other people with spinal cord injuries.
The west-to-east journey, from Steep Point to Cape Byron, will cover 5500km and Mr Kerec plans to finish it in 65 days, setting a new record for the route which he has dubbed The Spine Tingling Ride.
The last leg, from Byron Bay to Canberra, will take the total epic ride to 6820kms in 80 days, allowing Mr Kerec to finish the mighty effort at the home of his parents, Lud and Margaret, in Forde.
"The other reason was my accountant is sponsoring me per kilometre," he said, with a laugh.
Mr Kerec's solo mountain bike challenge was officially launched on Tuesday, the event both moving and cheeky, with the aim to raise at least $200,000 to be split equally between Hartley LifeCare and SpinalCure Australia.
The catalyst for it all is his father, Lud Kerec, who turns 75 next month, and who was made a quadriplegic in 2010 in a cycling accident.
"It's not about me," Mr Kerec said.
"My inspiration is my father and the reason every things I'm so great and wonderful, is that I'm just trying to be like my mother."
Mr Kerec, 54, will be riding a Canadian-made Rocky Mountain Blizzard mountain bike, with 4.8-inch wheels designed for riding on snow. He'll be using it across off-road terrain, including covering 12,000 sand dunes.
Hartley Lifecare CEO Eric Thauvette said the money raised from Mr Kerec's ride would be used to build more support accommodation in Canberra for people with disabilities.
The launch on Tuesday was held at Hartley's Renaissance House in Chapman, built by Mr Kerec's company Renaissance Homes to provide respite care for 25 families.
The home was built, in part, from proceeds from Mr Kerec's first ride in 2017, from Canberra to Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory.
Hartley chair Lisa Keeling said a major project now under way was the redevelopment of Hartley Court in Hughes, creating a purpose-built facility for people with disabilities.
The fundraising for the ride will also raise money for medical research into spinal cord injuries.
SpinalCure Australia executive director Duncan Wallace was at the launch on Tuesday, his 64th birthday.
"This is truly awe-inspiring," he said of the ride.
Mr Wallace was made a quadriplegic 39 years ago in Papua New Guinea where he was a coffee grower. A drunk driver hit the car he was driving and changed his life forever.
"The Kerec family knows all too well there's very little that devastates a life more quickly and more thoroughly than a spinal cord injury," Mr Wallace said.
He said "up until recently a cure from a spinal cord injury has been an unbelievable dream".
"But I'm very pleased to tell you that that is no longer the case," he said at the launch.
"It's not a matter of 'if' anymore, it's a matter of 'when'."
Mr Wallace said SpinalCure was helping to fund neurostimulation clinical trials in Australia that he described as "the world's most promising experimental treatment".
"It involves some gentle currents of electricity being put into the spinal cord below the level of injury and it helps to re-connect the brain and body through surviving nerve tissue," he said.
Mr Wallace said Mr Kerec's ride would help to fund the next stage of the trial, hopefully allowing quadriplegics to have some hand and arm function returned to them.
"Even small improvements, for people like Lud and I, a finger grip, a thumb and a forefinger, would make an enormous difference to our quality of life," he said.
For the west to east section of the ride, from Steep Point to Cape Byron, Mr Kerec will be trying to beat the current record for the distance set in 2021, which is 83 days, 21 hours and 27 minutes.
From Byron Bay, it will then be about heading home to Canberra.
Mr Kerec will cover between 80km and 120km a day, with a support crew, camping along the way and enjoying a glass of Pepperjack shiraz in the evening as a post-ride treat.
Mr Kerec said when it all seemed to much, words of encouragement from his friends and family and the ride's supporters made all the difference.
"I read all the pledges and messages and it gives me magnificent perspective and it kind of makes things get easy," he said.
Mr Kerec, who flies out on Saturday for the start of the challenge in WA, said addressing spinal cord injuries was not just about walking again, but "getting some function back".
"I can't think of a greater legacy if we can help in some small way to make that happen," he said.
- Donations to The Spine Tingling Ride can be made here.
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