Cancer, an e-bike and a 3800km journey
He’s made new friends, endured winter weather, put up with punctures and pedalled lonely roads, but Rod Rutherford has cycled the length of the country – all with stage four cancer.
Rutherford, a Tīrau-based Fonterra tanker driver, began a lifechanging e-bike journey that he’d dreamed of in Bluff at the end of February.
Since then, he’s ridden about 3800km – more than twice the length of the country – on his trusty bike in what he’s dubbed Rod’s Life Cycle, raising money for the Cancer Society.
Rutherford, 60, was diagnosed with stage four renal clear cell cancer in December 2020 after his wife Karen told him to visit a doctor to check out a nagging cough.
Renal clear cell cancer usually starts in the kidneys but, by the time he was diagnosed, it had spread to his brain and lungs, where he still has some tumours.
So far Rutherford has raised almost $7000 but wants to hit the $8000 mark, so he’s been out and about again, cycling around the Waikato talking to people about his trip.
While taking a break late April he received some bad news when doctors found at least two new tumours in his lungs.
‘‘They found a new one in my right lung . . . I recently had another check and they found another couple, so I’ve got four tumours now that I know of, but it is what it is – you can’t change it.’’
He’s had plenty of support throughout his circuitous ride upcountry to Cape Reinga, and arrived on the morning of July 23 with wife Karen and brother Arty having biked with him for the final four days.
‘‘Karen has been my greatest supporter though all of this. She has given me the courage to do this . . . I think it’s part of a good relationship, she has a lovely soul.’’
In fact, it was Karen’s idea to start at the bottom of the country and work his way up, knowing that he’d be riding in winter.
At times it did get cold, I tried to ride near to the coast because I love being by the sea.
‘‘I didn’t just go straight up the main trunk, I travelled round to see the countryside, and I loved it.’’
Rutherford found it hard to pick a highlight from his incredible journey but seeing his family – including his children and nine grandchildren – after he finished was certainly one of them.
‘‘New Zealand has great scenery and all that, but it’s the people who made it . . . I met the most wonderful people – when you put your hand out they take it, and they bring you into their world.
‘‘So many people helped me, they were all different, from all sorts of different nationalities.
‘‘I sometimes wonder if all the problems in the world we are facing today could be sorted if we all just talked to each other.’’
Rutherford has been stoic about his recent diagnosis and likes to enjoy each day as it comes.
‘‘I have a great love for life, and I’ve always been the guy that can’t stay in the same place for five or six years, I’ve got to keep moving.’’
He admitted he got a little lonely on his travels at times, but being lonely was just part of the challenge.
‘‘If you can’t be comfortable on your own, it’s hard to be comfortable anywhere.
‘‘There were lots of lonely nights on the side of the road or in a campsite. I always missed [my family].’’