Japanese woman cyclist Emiko Seal, who suspended her round-the-world bicycle journey more than a year ago after being diagnosed with cancer, chose Taiwan as the location to restart her ambitious global journey.
Seal and her Australian husband, Steve, arrived in Taipei late Thursday with their bikes to embark on a 10-day cycling journey starting from Taipei's Chientan Activity Center and concluding in Kenting.
At a press conference hosted by King Liu (
Emiko Seal started on her journey around the world some 15 years ago. By the time she was diagnosed with cancer in January last year, she had been on the road for more than one-third of her life, riding over 180,000km across 77 countries, with her husband, also a devout cyclist, accompanying her on the journey in the most recent years.
While riding through Pakistan, she underwent a medical exam in which she was diagnosed as having cancerous tumors in her uterus. The couple was forced to return to Japan so that she could seek treatment, effectively suspending her journey.
After 17 months of treatment and rest, she was recently given the go-ahead by her doctors to return to the road on the condition that she not excessively exert herself physically and not cycle more than 10km per day. Before being diagnosed with cancer, she had traveled some 100km per day.
The couple met several years ago soon after arriving in Australia for a motorcycle journey. Steve Seal had been riding a motorcycle across the outback of Australia. Later, the two ended up getting married, with both changing their wheels from motorcycle to bicycle.
When asked about his wife's "daring" endeavor to continue her round-the-world journey despite being diagnosed with cancer, Steve Seal said cycling is as important to her as life itself, adding that preventing her from cycling would be tantamount to depriving her of the right to live.
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