Journey with a mission. Cyclist’s fight against chronic fatigue syndrome took a turn when she heard of exiles’ ordeals
By DEBBIE PARKES
She suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, but Karen McLinton isn’t letting it dash her dream of bicycling around the world.
And since embarking on her trip two years ago, the native of the British isle of Jersey has added a mission to her journey – raising awareness of human rights abuses in Tibet.
“I was clueless,” said McLinton, 39, referring to her lack of knowledge about the atrocities committed against Tibet and Tibetans since China invaded its southwestern neighbour in 1949.
Then, while cycling through India last year, McLinton met 15 Tibetans cycling through India to raise awareness of Tibet.
When they invited her out for dinner that evening, McLinton’s lessons began.
“All that night I couldn’t sleep. I spent the whole night staring up at the ceiling thinking about what they told me,” she said.
Estimates by the Tibetan government-in-exile (in Dharamsala, northern India) put the number of Tibetans killed since 1949 at more than 1.2 million, and the number of monasteries destroyed at more than 6,000.
McLinton has heard no end of heart-wrenching stories, from the nun who was among their group of cyclists who had been jailed and tortured for three years for waving a Tibetan flag, to the Tibetan man who, at age 5, watched as his parents were buried to their necks in sand, then beheaded.
Struck by the Tibetan cyclists’ passion, McLinton joined them for the remaining eight weeks of their trip, then spent 11 weeks with them in Dharamsala.
“I kind of understood what it was like to have a dream, to hang on to it and not give up,” McLinton said.
A former insurance sales representative, McLinton was once so ill with chronic fatigue syndrome she feared she’d lose the ability to walk, she said.
She also suffered financial woes: Besides going through a costly divorce, she was too sick to work for three years.
Deciding she needed to do something entirely different, McLinton moved in with her parents, returned to work and saved for her trip.
In April 2001, she started her trip in France, then made her way through Italy and Greece before flying to India that December.
Her trip has also taken her through southeast Asia, and to Colorado, where she met up with Ryan Johnson, a 32-year-old American she’d first met in India, who has joined her on the Canadian portion of her trip.
“She’s been such an inspiration,” Johnson said. “She’s just someone who won’t let anything stand in the way.”
They left Vancouver in May, and plan to make it as far as Halifax before McLinton’s Canadian visa expires in four weeks.
From there, McLinton is hoping to cycle to New York to pass out pro-Tibet fliers in front of the United Nations building, and then head back for Europe.
Said McLinton: “I’ll probably be in my 80s when I stop.”
McLinton’s Web site is www.freetibetworldbikeride.com
dparkes@thegazette.canwest.com
