MONTREAL - Rick Hansen's Man in Motion fundraising tour might have taken place 25 years ago, but the spirit rolled anew Saturday as 111 participants retraced the local steps and tracks of the famous tour.
Herve Lord was on hand for the occasion. He lost a leg in a car accident 28 years ago and was inspired by Hansen's can-do spirit, which led him to get heavily involved in disabled sports.
He's now hoping that the disabled can keep rolling their lot forward.
"We want everything to be accessible to people with a disability, now we're 2011 it's time to refresh memories," he said.
Others such as Roger Mondor have been helping organize sports for the disabled since long before Hansen's tour.
But he's happy to be part of the newer movement.
"I feel privileged to be one of them," he beamed.
Dr. Albert Aguayo, a Montreal-based spinal cord expert, has said that the benefits of Hansen's legendary tour have been twofold, both for understanding and medical advancement.
"It brought hope to people based on the reality of advances in medicine and on the advances on the social understanding of what is required for people with spinal cord injuries," he said.
The tour is scheduled to travel 6,000 kilometers around the country over a nine month period.
