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Podcast Transcription
[00:00:00] Scott Dillingham: Welcome to the wisdom lifestyle money show. I’m your host. Scott Dillingham. The goal of the show is to show you how you can grow personally, financially, have a larger net worth and leverage your largest asset to help develop you into the person you want to. I take you through all the steps I did coming from nothing being told, I was nobody and that I was never going to accomplish anything.
Getting kicked out of high school to owning a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio, and my own company, you’ll meet our partners, you’ll , meet our friends and you’ll quickly discover how you can improve your life.
So listen in and enjoy the show.
Welcome back to the show today. Today I have a very special guest. Her name is Jillian, and she is biking across Canada for sick kids. She’s actually already went from Toronto to new Brunswick and by the time you’re listening to this, she’s probably on rail or maybe she’ll be back, but she’s biking from Vancouver to Toronto, which is amazing.
So Jillian welcome. So what’s inspired you like did this inspiration to bike across Canada? Was this something you came up with when you were younger or was it something that just hit you when you were older?
[00:01:12] Jillian Lynch: So for me, I guess the first time that I had this idea to bike across Canada was I actually in Chico in the children’s hospital, east and Ontario.
So my little brother, because he was born a cystic fibrosis spending so much time, internet, with chronic lung infections. And that was the first time that we had met someone who was biking across Canada. She always such a cool, inspiring story for me. And I always thought when I grow up I’m going to the first big purchase of my life is going to be a bike I’m going to make across Canada.
So I actually started this bike, sorry, this bike trip with the bike that I had purchased. Whenever I was 12 years old, which wasn’t a very smart idea. I ended up breaking down and my third day and I had to buy a whole new one. That’s the stream has been living part of me. Yeah. I’m 25 now.
So it’s been at least 13 years that I’ve been thinking of doing something like this and. Now I’m part of the way Dinah and still have a huge chunk of candidate across.
[00:02:11] Scott Dillingham: No, that’s awesome. So when it comes to bikes, do you have a preference? Do you have a brand that you like?
[00:02:18] Jillian Lynch: Ooh. Okay. So I’ll be honest.
The state of everyone seems like they’re more and more interested in cycling these days just because I think recreational activities have shifted. With Kobe and with gyms being closed. So I actually purchased the only bike that was my size in abouts seven bike stores that I had visited.
So I ended up picking a gravel road bike it’s a solo 30 Rocky mountain. Really great for climbing up Hills. So I love that and I’m going to be excited to use it in the west coast for sure.
[00:02:51] Scott Dillingham: No, that’s incredible. That’s awesome. Tell me about your brother. So I know a lot of what you’re doing now is to help support and create awareness.
And tell me what your brother like what’s happening with him.
[00:03:02] Jillian Lynch: Yeah. So in, as I mentioned before, he was born. Cystic fibrosis had very frequent hospital admissions all throughout our childhood. And in 2014 he was airlifted to sick kids, hospital listed for his first double lung transplant.
Received it successfully went on and lived the best year of his life. Like we created a bucket list that year and Every time he craved a new favorite food. He just went for it every time that he wanted to experience something just did it. It was this appreciation that life is very short.
But my brother’s health declined and he actually needed a second double lung transplant. And then, he didn’t recover super well after the second transplant and actually ended up needing a third double lung transplant, but he. Is now the youngest person in the world and also the first Canadian to have had three double lung transplants.
He’s an incredible inspiration to me. I could, anytime that I lost a little bit like a bit of motivation because you feel like your body is breaking down. I definitely thought about my brother and also how much he’s been through. ‘ cause he’s definitely been through more than any person I’ve ever met.
But yeah he’s currently at home with my parents right now back in our hometown and just doing what he can to make more memories and spend some time with family and friends. No,
[00:04:25] Scott Dillingham: for sure. So how is he recovering now? You mentioned the second one. He wasn’t recovering that well. How is he recovering now?
[00:04:31] Jillian Lynch: So this third transplant has been tricky. He’s actually been TA received testing to potentially receive a fourth double lung transplant. Cause he is currently again in the stage of chronic rejection. Yeah. But he has such an incredible mindset and I think it’s his mindset that is really allowed him to maximize his.
If, to the extent that he has he’s 23 years old, but he has not really allowed life to put the halt on him. Like he, he really worked out every day of his life as if it was. One of his last and I’m so proud of him for that. And that’s why he’s inspired me also to do what you want to do with your life while you’re living it, because it’s, it can be so short.
And you really have, this one opportunity to do that.
[00:05:17] Scott Dillingham: No, it’s true. Like we on this show, we talk about personal and develop, personal and financial development. And one of the things that we some of the recordings and previous people we had on everybody says, you just have to get out there and do whatever it is that you want to do.
And a lot of people are I don’t know if the word is lazy, but they just don’t get out there and do it. So I actually loved the fact that for your brother, he’s just doing whatever it is that he wants to do. What does he want to do next? Is there something really big that he wants to do that he hasn’t done yet?
[00:05:43] Jillian Lynch: Yeah. So w just prior to the pandemic, and this is honestly wild to me, so he had his third double lung transplant, and then he. Really hard to recover as fast as he cried. And he was very serious about it. Like he wanted to make sure that he had great nutrition. He had like great everything to give him like his best shot at recovering to the best that he could.
And so he actually, four months after his third transplant drove from Toronto all the way to Vancouver and He hasn’t German in himself yet from Toronto to new Brunswick. So he wants to do actually the opposite of what I’m doing or I’m doing the opposite of what he’s done. Yeah it’s really cool, but so his next extreme, this to, jive from Toronto to.
[00:06:37] Scott Dillingham: No that’s incredible. That’s amazing. We’ve heard about some of your brother’s trial and tribulations and things that he’s went through. How has this been for your parents going through all of this?
[00:06:46] Jillian Lynch: Yeah I think with, the three double lung transplants, obviously, just moving, like being airlifted to a completely new city is.
Such into, for family to go through. So whenever we first arrived for it, my parents are both small town folks who, you are accustomed to seeing more cows and more greenery and more trees than you do people ever. So it, they were really shocked whenever we got to the city and suddenly there’s HARs everywhere.
There’s a lot of conveniences of course in Toronto, but it’s. Super overwhelming if you’re from the middle of a wrist. So they had a hard time adapting and then also getting like a grasp of all the new medical jargon that comes with this plan. So it was definitely a lot and it did cause them both to lose their jobs at some points.
I’ve also been in a situation where, I had to choose between caregiving and. And working and I ultimately, I chose caregiving just because it felt like the more important thing to do at that time. But yeah, I know that there’s families that are constantly making those choices too.
So yeah, I have a lot of respect for obviously all the staff that took care of my brother, but also for all the parents and caregivers that are taking care of their loved ones.
[00:07:58] Scott Dillingham: Yeah, it is. It’s crazy. And it’s the little things that count too. I remember one time I helped out at McDonald’s Ronald McDonald charity house and we bought food and all kinds of stuff for this little kid.
And he at the end of the day, he hugged us all and said we were his best friends. So that meant so much for him just to get out there and do something. So I think some people don’t realize how. That was a little thing for me and my friends to do, but a little things go a huge way in helping others to heal and, become better and feel better internally from this.
So I think that’s a amazing, now we’ve got to take a quick break. But when we come back Jillian is going to go into her story of preparing and everything and how it comes or everything that needs to happen to travel from Vancouver to Toronto. So I’m really excited to hear this story. So it will be.
Okay, welcome back. Yeah. Thanks for tuning back in. So Jillian, before the break, I mentioned that you were going to travel from Toronto to Vancouver or, sorry, vice versa. Vancouver to Toronto. So what is that like how long do you have to prepare for that?
[00:09:01] Jillian Lynch: Yeah. So I think already, I’ve learned so much about how to be more efficient on your bike.
I I think in total, I have about 50 liters of stuff that I’m bringing with me. And that’s including my water bottles, my food. That’s including, my tent, my, my clothes for the trip. Lots of socks. But I really learned how to dramatically drastically live off of almost nothing.
Now. So all my stuff can either fit inside one 50 liter backpack or basically in two panties along the back of my bike. But I think, all, yeah. Yeah. So I’m very minimalistic now. And I think it’s almost like for. Until it’d be like, live off of. So little. But I also have some really high tech gadgets with me too.
So some of my favorite ones are like when I’m biking, I’m also generating my own electricity through this company called . So they have really giving me some things that I can generate electricity on biking, and don’t have to worry about running out of juice for my phone.
But yeah, otherwise I was like, wow, that’s nice and cool gadgets too, to keep me out there as well.
[00:10:09] Scott Dillingham: Yeah. No that’s awesome. So when you’re going, so you’re packing lights. Is there any health issues or risks that you face when you’re traveling? Have you had like low blood sugar?
Has anything come up like.
[00:10:20] Jillian Lynch: Oh, wait. There’s one day. It was about 32 degrees outside, so it’s just so hot. And it was only carrying about three liters of water on my bike. And three liters sounds like a lot, but on a really hot day, it does not feel like enough. And I was probably still about 40 kilometers from my destination that evening.
And so yeah you definitely get to a point where, I was anything that had any sort of moisture. I was like it’s crazy, but you’re just so desperate for water. So you. You really
in nature, just cause there’s more moisture than not having anything at all. So that was definitely the hardest date. And then when it got to the next village I was going to be staying in there’s only one Pablo band open. And so I. Hold up and I was calling there maybe 10 minutes before closing and they gave me like, oh gosh a liter of orange juice and like probably four liters of water.
So that was amazing. And I literally chucked all of it because you’re just so thirsty at that
[00:11:21] Scott Dillingham: point. Yeah, I know for sure. I know that’s crazy. On the road, so you’re riding your bike riding, you’re creating awareness. Is there. Has there been any like unique people or cool stories that you have that you could share with someone that you’ve witnessed along the way?
[00:11:35] Jillian Lynch: Yeah. All right. Most fascinating person that I met on this trip so far is this. Really young man from Japan actually. So he arrived in in Quebec just prior to the pandemic starting and he hasn’t been able to go back to Japan. He was only supposed to come here for a few months for a very short contract and then head back.
So pretty much what he’s decided to do is to just bike across like different parts of Canada. And he’s. Such an interesting person. His grandparents actually saw the Hiroshima bomb in Japan and their family farm is only 70 kilometers from where the bomb went off and he had such incredible and interesting stories.
And that’s just one person, but there was, so many people on this journey who were just interesting and had so much like knowledge offer. There was this other couple that had a sign in their yard that says, free camping for any cyclist. So I stayed at their house for one night when sleep.
And they were telling me that there’s, they had met a man who had hiked across Canada in just 18 days with only. And like a little bit of camping gear and that’s basically like a water bottle. So I, I didn’t get to meet this person personally, but just hearing their stories through another person was just a wild to me because it took me, 14 days to bike from Toronto to new Brunswick.
All of Canada in 18 days. It’s such a little gear.
[00:13:00] Scott Dillingham: Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s crazy. So I realized that guy, he was probably on a mission, if you’re going to get a bike across Canada in that short of time what do you think? Like how long do you think it will take?
[00:13:10] Jillian Lynch: So I, oh gosh, it is so hard to predict. Cause I’ve met people that have done it into. I’ve met people that have done it in four months. I’m predicting for myself, you, usually I go about like 120 kilometers a day is very comfortable for me. I’ve gone up to 200 million kilometers a day.
So it really depends on how hard I want to push my body and I guess how cold it gets and if I want to avoid the cold of October,
But I think we’ll cover as much ground as I can in, from currently August to December. And we’ll see if I dip into October. Yeah.
[00:13:43] Scott Dillingham: It’s so cool. I truly, I love I love the mission and you’ve just decided to like, just I’m doing this and you did it. I really respect your. So obviously this, I think, especially if you keep doing this, I think it’s gonna spread the Terry Fox run.
Cause it’s all over the place now. And I believe that you could probably get to something like that. But in the meantime so you’re biking to create awareness. Is there any thing, is there a place that someone could donate or anything like that to help along the way to, make your trip a success, but also to help others that are in.
[00:14:15] Jillian Lynch: Yeah, of course. So I have a sick kids get loud page. And if you look up Jillian Marie Lynch, you’ll be able to find what I’m doing and be able to donate as well. And I personally know so many of the families that you’d be potentially. And have experienced a lot of the kids programs that have helped the siblings as well as the patients and families of sick kids.
So I know that it’s, for me, the most like life-changing experience was getting to see sick kids. And then, being met with staff that really had. It’s a huge impact on me and on my brother, too. So there’s so many unforgettable nurses and staff that are really like heavily ingrained into my mind.
And I think about that I re I just want to say kudos to all the nurses and healthcare workers out there that are, doing everything they can for this pandemic to because you’ve made a huge difference. Yeah.
[00:15:03] Scott Dillingham: That’s awesome. So what I’ll do is when we’re done on the show, I’ll leave the recording.
Cause it’s also goes to a podcast there. So the link will be in the podcast for the URL, but for everyone who’s listening on the radio could you maybe spell out your website or what it is like the URL so people can tune into it if they want to help and support or see what you’re up to?
[00:15:23] Jillian Lynch: Yeah, of course.
So my name. So this sick kids get loud fundraising page. The page to help is located here.
[00:15:38] Scott Dillingham: Okay. That’s perfect. No, I love it. I think it’s so cool. I’ll follow up with you when this is live and maybe you’ll be able to tune it. I don’t know where you are, where you’ll have the internet, but on the radio you can you can tune in and listen live.
So you can hear that. Or when you come back, it’ll be available on the podcast, but I thanks for tuning in today. Everybody. I find a Gillian story, inspiring. Let’s support her on her cause and help others and donate any, anything I think would be amazing. Any amount that you have to spare.
I think that’ll go a long way and thanks so much for tuning in today.
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