Life is either a daring adventure or nothing

Article from TODAY, 13th September 2008

Many of you would have heard the news by now: Lance Armstrong, the 7-times Tour de France champion whom retired 3 years ago, is back in the professional cycling scene and attempts to challenge for his 8th Tour de France title next year!

Now, what makes this "resurrection" from retirement evermore so impressive and inspiring was the fact that Lance Armstrong is a cancer survivor. Having started out his pro-cycling term on the Tour de France in 1993, he was getting better in his performance by the year and many would have expected him to win the Tour de France in 1996. However, that was when disaster struck - Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer, and (listen to this) the cancerous cells had already spread to his lungs, brain and abdomen! Doctors have listed that Lance's chances of survivor was just a mere 40%.

Pause. How would you have reacted under such circumstances if you were Lance Armstrong? Honestly for me, I would be totally devastated and lost hope on everything in life! Or probably I would give up on cycling, stay home to sulk and complain that life is just seemingly so unfair.

Story continues. But that was not the response from Lance Armstrong. He spent the next two years undergoing intensive regiments of chemotherapy, brain surgery to remove the tumors and even an orchiectomy to remove the diseased testicle (ouch!).

Lance Armstrong's death-defying comeback to the cycling scene began in 1998 on a local competition where he came in 4th. Then in 1999, he won his first Tour de France, leaving the second place cyclist breathing in his tracks of dust by a hefty 7 min 37 seconds! Tremendous accomplishment for a guy whom just a year ago was battling surgeries, rehabilitations and threaded along the brink of death! This road win in 1999 marked the first of the next 6 Tour de France win that was to come. Between 1999 - 2005, Lance Armstrong won 7 Tour de France titled in total, achieving 22 individual stage wins and 11 time trials!

There has been much commotion since the public announcement about why Lance Armstrong wants to come out from retirement. Was it for the money? Was it just another commercially viable publicity stunt? What's Lance Armstrong trying to prove here?

Frankly speaking, it doesn't really matter whether Lance Armstrong wins another Tour de France title or not. Just by looking at his illustrious and adversary-denying track history, I am already inspired by his never-say-die attitude. Whatever the circumstances of life, this guy just refuse to take it lying down and rises up to challenge the odds.

I like what the article above mentioned about Lance Armstong: "He's prepared for the mother of all comebacks, because Armstrong the cancer survivor is all about how men and women can overcome great odds, to reach the mountain top."

May you be inspired by Lance Armstrong's testimony. Irregardless of the odds that may be stacked against us in life, we can choose to rise up and fight on! You can be a 'Lance Armstrong' in every way.

Glossary:

(1) The Tour de France is the world's best-known bicycle race. Started in 1903 and run every year excluding the world wars, it is nowadays a 23-day, 21-stage road race usually covering more than 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi).

(2) Castration (also referred to as: gelding, neutering, fixing, orchiectomy, and orchidectomy) is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testes. In common usage the term is usually applied to males, although as a medical term it is applied to both males and females.