My name’s Josh, I’m a dad, husband, cyclist, and skier. Growing up in Vermont, I’ve skied since before I could walk and have been in love with bikes for about as long.
In 2022 I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis, with a poor prognosis. It took about 3hrs to go from a trail run with my dog to a hospital bed, paralyzed and numb from the chest down. I was scared, angry, full of questions, and not all that hopeful. I outlined my first day with TM here.
After a lot of pain, sweat, tears, and growth I managed to get back on my feet and return to life. I still have a lot of residual challenges from TM and I’ve come to accept that you don’t necessarily “recover”, you learn and adapt and overcome like anything else.
It took a lot of patient training and slow improvement, but in 2025 I completed both the Vermont Gran Fondo and the VT50. These are two milestone rides that I had done before I had TM and I was extremely proud to return to both of them.
There isn’t a lot of good information out there for people living with TM and nearly none for endurance athletes, I hope by sharing my info it helps people out there living through their own journeys with TM.
Getting back on my Feet
After I made it through the lumbar punctures, MRI’s, steroids, and all of the other normal things that people like to do… I was demanding to stand up. I know this is not a surprise to anyone who has had…
The Start of my Journey
I work in manufacturing and have for my entire adult life, which means I travel to a lot of factories and spend my days on my feet. On that normal Monday I was scheduled to go on a business trip…
