At the end of a quiet cul de sac in Central Saanich last week, something extraordinary sprang from something ordinary and cruel.
Saanich police Sgt. Mike Lawless, 43, is fighting the recurrence and spread of Stage 3 lung cancer.
Last Sunday, he stepped out his front door to witness a single ribbon of former Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock riders in uniform pedalling toward him. It was called Miles for Mike.
As one rider’s face came into focus, another rider appeared on the horizon in a parade that seemed to have no end.
“I started looking at the faces and having the memories of the years they rode,” Lawless said. “There were a lot of faces and a lot of memories, so it was overwhelming.”
They just kept coming.
The scene unfolded more like a movie than real life as almost 100 riders representing 17 years of the Tour de Rock — a new team is chosen each year — rode up to the strapping six-foot-five cop and coiled around him. Most knew Lawless as a member of the support crew that accompanies the riders.
“There’s a couple of people every year who say I was the one person who kept them rolling when they felt like giving up,” Lawless said.
During the tour, riders pedal 1,000 kilometres from the north end of Vancouver Island to the south, raising money to fight childhood cancer.
“I always thought maybe it was two or three people I touched each year, but I never thought it would be something like this today,” Lawless said.
Officers in various stages of health and fitness — from a new mom to a retired officer battling Parkinson’s — rode from Victoria with the hope of being a brush stroke in this painting of gratitude.
The gift was not lost on Lawless.
There was barely a dry eye as the good-humoured officer thanked his Tour family. His wife Krista tried through tears to express gratitude for the support the family has been shown.
Lawless rode in the Tour de Rock in 2004, then worked on the support crew every year until he fell ill.
His involvement as a tour rider started out as much for fun as for the cause. But before he knew it, the tour became almost unbearably relevant.
After meeting the sick kids and their parents and realizing how much money the tour could generate “it was something I couldn’t get away from,” Lawless said.
Since 1998, the tour has raised almost $20 million for the Canadian Cancer Society, which uses the money to fund pediatric cancer research and programs that help children and their families, such as Camp Goodtimes.
“It became such an emotional thing,” Lawless said. “Each year the tour came up I’d ask my wife: ‘Do you mind if I do Tour this year?’ She’d reply: ‘You have to do Tour.’ ”
On Sunday, the tour riders gave back to Lawless.
Some were there remembering the high-fives from Lawless that gave them a jolt of support before hitting the hills each morning.
Others were there remembering the hug he gave that helped them carry on when the story of another sick child or grief-stricken parent became too much to bear.
Still more said they appreciated when he whipped kids into an excited frenzy before the team arrived at a school gymnasium, or the infamous pep talk he gave riders before tackling the so-called Hump into Port Alberni.
“F--- the Hump,” he’d whisper into riders’ ears for a laugh and shot of confidence. “That kept us going over the hill with a big giggle,” said West Shore RCMP Const. Mike Robinson. “It’s the cruelest of ironies this would happen to him.”
Asked to lead them in a cheer Sunday, Lawless was damned if he would succumb to the weakness and dizziness caused by his cancer. He bellowed the invocation to the cheer that tour riders have adopted from the Canadian Cancer Society’s kids’ summer retreat: “Hey Camp Goodtimes, how do we feel?”
The thunderous reply had to be felt to be understood: “Awesome awesome awesome, very awesome.”
Victoria Insp. Jamie Pearce, a member of the first Tour de Rock team in 1998, said of Lawless: “He’s just such a huge inspiration. He’s the biggest cheerleader we have.”
Retired Victoria Insp. Gord Gummer called Lawless compassionate and passionate.
“Today is a reflection of what he has done for the tour.”
Retired Saanich Const. Martin Pepper, one of the tour’s founders, said there was no Mike Lawless for the original team in 1998.
When Pepper, the only person to ride the tour twice, took part in the 10th edition of the tour in 2007, he saw what a difference Lawless made when he acted as team cheerleader in schools.
“He has phenomenal energy,” Pepper said. “It was electric. The kids were completely out of control. I cannot imagine the tour without him.”
Pepper said the bond between riders goes beyond that of officers in the same department.
“I may have started this in 1998 but I left policing in 1999,” Pepper said. “Ninety-five per cent of these people I didn’t know. But we are all related.”
Municipal officers, RCMP and military police join media riders to become one team.
Andy Rickaby, retired from the RCMP, rode in 2010. He now has Parkinson’s but he had to try to ride Sunday to support Lawless. Friends gave him a push as he pedalled.
“I have so much respect for Mike and how much he’s done over the years,” Rickaby said. “It was just a no-brainer to be here today and support him and his family.”
Radio host and CHEK-TV weather man Ed Bain remembered during the tour promising on air that at an upcoming stop he’d give out free CHEK pens.
When some elderly women approached looking for their pens, Bain’s pockets were empty and the tour that runs on military time was about to leave.
No sooner had Bain told the women there was no merchandise, than he heard Lawless panting behind him. The officer had somehow sprinted all the way back to the crew van, unearthed Bain’s bag, found the pens and returned.
“That’s the kind of guy he is,” Bain said. “He’s such a solid individual.”
Lawless’s cancer was diagnosed in July 2013. It was a devastating blow. But early this year there was a cancer-free scan after three months, and yet another clear scan after six. His oncologist was ecstatic. Lawless began planning a return to work.
“And then I had a headache one day that didn’t’ go away,” Lawless said.
He went to the emergency department and an MRI revealed the cancer was back and had spread to his brain.
This summer, two sausage-size tumours were removed but some of the cancer remains. Radiotherapy is the only treatment option.
On any given day, Lawless accepts that cancer is an indiscriminate beast and “this time it’s me.”
But he’s not going to lie. The next day he feels cheated, having never been a smoker, having dedicated so much of himself to the cause of cancer research, and because with a wife and 11- and 14-year-old sons he has so much to live for.
“I go back and forth all the time,” he said. “I look at some of the statistics for lung cancer and less than one per cent of all lung cancer patients are under the age of 50. I’m 43. Statistically, I shouldn’t have it.”
Saanich Insp. Gary Schenk said Lawless embodies the spirit of Tour de Rock more than any other person who has ever been involved with it.
“The question that everyone has asked at one time or another, either publicly or privately, is, ‘Why Mike?’ Why Mike when he is literally the face of the Tour de Rock cause for so many? Because if Mike Lawless can contract lung cancer as a young and fit non-smoker it is frighteningly and painfully clear that anyone can.”
Lawless and his wife are taking things one day at a time, figuring if he can fall into the one per cent of young non-smokers who get an aggressive late-stage lung cancer, he can be amongst the small percentage who beat it.
“F--- the Hump.”
As the tour pulled out, Lawless gave each member a high-five until he came to Bill Fry, a bike store owner who has long volunteered to train the team, and who organized Miles for Mike.
The two men embraced.
And then the team rode off just as they had arrived earlier— as if in a movie where a scene is so perfectly choreographed it takes the mind away for a brief time from the imperfection of real life.
A fundraiser for Mike Lawless will be held on Friday, Nov. 14, at the Leonardo da Vinci Centre, 195 Bay St. Here are the details.
