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How did Survive & Thrive Adventures Inc. get started?
Mike and Bonnie Lang, Directors
Mike grew up in Calgary, AB, hating everything to do with the outdoors. That all changed when he skipped his last high school exam (physics, who cares) and took off to Europe and fell in love with mountaineering and rock climbing in the Austrian Alps. A year later Mike ended up back in Vancouver, Canada at Trinity Western University (TWU) after traveling through the Middle East and a small part of Africa as well as most of Europe. At TWU he co-founded the extremely popular Trinity Western University Outdoor Club and lead over 30 trips with activities such as rock climbing, rafting, backpacking, surfing, biking, skiing and winter camping. Mike graduated with a Bachelors of Human Kinetics in Recreation, minor in Biology and a 3.7 GPA. Also, in Mike?s 2nd year of university he met his future wife, Bonnie.
Bonnie grew up in Walnut Creek, California and was very active with Young Life, youth groups, and running in both cross country tack and field. She competed at the California State Cross Country Championships and spent all four years running hard and loving it. After graduating from high school she decided to leave home and go to university in Canada at TWU because she wanted a change of scenery and climate (she loves the rain!) and as she wanted to pursue French. It did not take long, however, for her to discover her passions as she launched into leadership roles on campus as a Resident Assistant, Community Facilitator, and as a leader of the Outdoor Club after Mike graduated and left it in her care. Through friends and new experiences at TWU, Bonnie grew to love rock climbing and hiking and proved to be a great match for Mike as they dated throughout university. She graduated with a degree in Leadership Communications and a minor in Recreation.
On December 15th, 2007, Mike Lang and Bonnie Chalmers were married in Plain, Washington surrounded by a handful of friends and family members and beautiful snowy fields. They spent 18 months serving with Youth Dynamics Adventures (YDA) planning trips and taking junior and senior high school students white water rafting, backpacking, kayaking, and rock climbing in Washington. In March 2008, Mike was diagnosed with cancer and they both moved back to Calgary, Alberta after Bonnie immigrated to Canada. Through his experiences going through treatments, Mike decided to engage more with the issues that other young adults with cancer face and founded Survive and Thrive Adventures, Inc.
Mike Lang's Cancer Story:
In May 2008 I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma Stage 3. I had a persistent cough and when I was hiking and skiing I was wheezing. I went to the Dr. thinking that I had asthma and found out that it was actually a softball sized tumor in my chest causing my breathing issues and that I had five other tumors of varying sizes all over my body. The diagnosis was obviously a bit unexpected. So, my wife of 5 months, Bonnie, and I packed everything up and moved from Washington state into my parents basement in Calgary and I started treatments.
About three months into my treatments was a real low point for me. I was very depressed and all I could think about was when this crappy time in my life would be over. It got to the point where one day I just laid down on my face in the basement and cried out to God in complete anguish and anger asking all the cliche questions like why me? why now? I don't deserve this? and as I was laying there I all of a sudden realized that this cancer thing was a big deal.
Just like leaving home and traveling the world and going to university had shaped me, this cancer journey was shaping me. I realized that this time is not just a big interruption in my life but a real experience that is affecting my world view and fundamentally changing how I think. I was trying to deal with cancer by just sitting in the basement with my eyes closed, waiting for it to be over so I could get on with my life.
I believe that God helped me realized that I need to engage with this cancer thing and learn from it and make changes in my life and impact others lives through it. So I began to think of how I could engage fully with this cancer experience and my wife Bonnie and I came up with this idea of Survive & Thrive Adventures Inc.
CHECK OUT http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=sVSNKlbgSHw TO SEE A SHORT VIDEO OF ONE OF MIKE'S CHEMO TREATMENTS
Our Mission
To help young adult survivors of severe illness or injury identify, process and apply life lessons through adventure activites.