Lindsay Gault's 11,000km bike ride for cancer

When Lindsay Gault left the IT business world, he hopped on his bike and decided to ride right across Africa. It was a magical release from the pressures of the corporate business world, but it was also a revelation in experiencing and exploring countries and communities on a long-distance bike ride.

After his first ride through Africa in 2010, Gault made the decision to use his love for these adventurous trips to do some good, raising money for the Cancer Society New Zealand through our You Can for Cancer campaign, You Can Push Your Limits.

Since his first ride, Gault has ridden the entire South Island of New Zealand, from the Artic down and through Canada, and right across the Red Centre of Australia’s desert from Albany via Alice Springs to Rockhampton.

His next big trip starts in May, a six-month long ride from Liaoning Province, China through to Athens, Greece – a mere 11,000km.

The trip will take Gault through Mongolia, riding down through the ancient Silk Trade route, through Kyrgyzstan to Turkey and then finally to Athens. Gault does these long-haul rides fully self-contained and self-funded, stopping for supplies when he needs to and sleeping in a tent at the end of each day.

“I’ve got this mantra where if you put yourself into these extreme situations, you’ve got no right to complain about the hardships because you put yourself there partly for that reason. I keep that mantra in my head, and it really works well,” said Gault when asked if the harsh conditions deterred him.

While Gault enjoys the adventurous aspect of the long-haul bike rides, the main reason he does these trips is to raise money to go towards cancer support services and research.

“Part of the original thought was my dad died at age 50 with triple cancer – lung, liver and bowel cancer,” Gault said.

This wasn’t Gault’s only experience with cancer. He has lost many close friends to cancer and just before he left for his Canada ride, his sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the same time, his sister-in-law was also diagnosed with breast cancer. While his sister’s cancer was caught in time, his sister-in-law’s cancer wasn’t.

Gault saw both his sister and sister-in-law access services through the Cancer Society. “You know, radiation is Auckland and then some treatment is in Whangārei, and the Cancer Society was really, really instrumental in coordinating that,” he noted.

While he passes through Mongolia, Gault also aims to raise funds for the National Cancer Council of Mongolia. He hopes that many will join him on this 1,000km part of the ride to raise funds locally in the fight against cancer.

Gault aims to raise as much as he can through this ride from China to Greece to go towards cancer research in New Zealand, but he also wants to use this opportunity to raise awareness for early intervention.

“The difference between my sister and my sister-in-law was awareness and early intervention. I mean, my sister caught it really early, but my sister-in-law had left it and had nagging doubts and hadn’t actually sought a diagnosis until it had spread to bone,” Gault said on the importance of getting checked if you have doubts.

Gault begins his ride in May 2024 in the Liaoning Province of China. He’ll be posting regular updates to his blog along the way.