Finding strength and a new purpose on the road to recovery

RED DEER — Shayne DeMarce lived life in the fast lane, quite literally. With a motorcycle beneath him and the open road calling his name, he embraced every mile with passion and purpose.

It was in those quiet moments of freedom, where nothing else mattered, that he felt most alive, and completely unstoppable.

“Heading down the highway and through the mountains and by rivers and valleys and prairies and it's just magic. It’s a spiritual moment. I could process my life.” While navigating the everyday moments of life and embracing its joys, Shayne’s world changed forever in a single moment.

It started as an ordinary weekend. He hopped on his bike to meet friends for a ride south of Red Deer. As the group headed home, Shayne saw a railway crossing ahead and another rider slowing down. In an instant, he was in the ditch.

His friends acted fast, rushing him to Red Deer Regional Hospital. Doctors found a punctured lung, broken ribs, and a long list of serious injuries. Despite the severity of the crash, there was one overwhelming relief: Shayne was alive. Then the doctor asked a question that stunned everyone: "When did Shayne have his stroke?”

In the days that followed, he endured multiple surgeries, including a tracheotomy that temporarily took away his ability to speak.

Upstroke Documentary

“I think the first part was just trying to stay alive. I could hear the machines beeping and I could hear people becoming panicked when I stopped breathing. I'd hear people crying and talking. Then I would start to feel like I would start coming out of it. Then I would panic in these situations. I could hear the nurse keep asking me if I was in pain. The short, brief moments that I would come out of wherever I was, I couldn't communicate. I was writing on my daughter's hand with my finger. That's how I communicated for probably the first week.”

When he finally regained consciousness, surrounded by his family, he heard his doctor say the word ‘stroke’. It was the first time Shayne realized his injuries went far beyond the crash, “I came to, and I heard the doctor talking to my wife, and that’s when all hope was lost in my mind, right?”

What followed for Shayne felt like survival. He had to rebuild his life from the ground up, relearning how to walk, talk, and rediscover who he was, “I had my spidey senses out 24-7 to try and figure out what the new me is going to look like, what he does, who he is. You just start at ground zero.”

Motorcycle rides were replaced by physical therapy. Time with his kids and grandkids was confined to hospital rooms, and fellow patients became family. Yet through it all, Shayne found strength in every small victory and hope in the people who stood beside him.

The years that followed brought countless hospital visits, rehabilitation programs, and weekly group sessions as Shayne navigated the many stages of recovery. He credits the unwavering support of those around him, especially the staff at the Halvar Jonson Centre for Brain Injury, for helping him find strength through each step of the journey.

Shayne also knows recovery is not defined only by milestones; every step forward came with moments of struggle that tested his resilience and shaped his path. He credits commitment to support groups, men’s groups and other recovery support networks as a key place for people to find commonality, and he looks to positive movies and stories to push him to keep going.

“Forrest Gump and Rudy are great; I think the best all-time movies are the Rocky series; any of the underdog stories are phenomenal… Watching a human being struggle and not just survive but thrive…anything is possible.”

Although life will forever look different, Shayne is determined to have this new phase of his life be one built on purpose, and helping others. This includes documenting his journey through recovery and hosting his podcast to connect with other patients, “I just keep picturing those patients in the facility that never had a visitor. I would say it's probably 1/4 of them; it blew my mind. People for months, never had one person visit them. I kind of felt it was my duty. I owed them because now they're my people. Like the place I feel most comfortable today is in a facility. When I walk into one of these environments, it's like my people. These are my bikers now.”

Follow Shayne’s journey on his Podcast: @UpstrokePodcast.