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Cancer survivor cycles through town on sixth world tour

A mere 47,000 kilometres after cancer survivor Randolph Westphal cycled through 100 Mile House in 2005
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German cancer survivor Randolph Westphal cycled through 100 Mile House recently with his dogs

A mere 47,000 kilometres after cancer survivor Randolph Westphal cycled through 100 Mile House in 2005 with his husky dogs, Yukon and Nanook, he was back again, July 22-23 as part of his sixth world bike tour.

In 1987, at the age of 29, Westphal was diagnosed with incurable skin cancer and given up to only one year to live

Since then the 55-year-old from Germany has endured 28 cancer operations and logged a total of 207,000 km on his bike, giving motivational talks about cancer survival along the way and showing people why they should never give up.

Following several years biking through Europe, Westphal returned to Vancouver on May 4 to begin his newest journey, which has already brought him through Banff and Jasper and will likely continue to Whitehorse, and eventually to Victoria.

He travels on a Raleigh Dover Lite Premium electrical bike, with his two dogs, Chinook and Nanook, riding comfortably on a cart towed behind the bicycle.

Since Westphal was last here, he's had knee surgery and received a new hip, so he depends on the electric bike to make pedalling easier. Where it takes him, he's not sure.

My destination is to help people – to zigzag all over and spread my message.”