TORONTO - Most people fortunate enough to meet a public figure they admire would likely walk away happy with an autograph, a photo or a handshake, or merely to bask in the experience itself.
But meeting Lance Armstrong ignited something more in Andy Brooks, who like the U.S. cycling star, is a cancer survivor.
Andy, 16, diagnosed with brain cancer as a three-year-old, was among 10 teens selected to have lunch with the seven-time Tour de France champion in Toronto last September while Armstrong was in town for a corporate event.
Armstrong spoke to the teens about an upcoming ride across Canada to help kids with cancer.
"I looked over at my mom and I said, 'I want to do this,"' recalled Andy.
The Oakville, Ont., teen is now among some 50 national cyclists on the inaugural Sears National Kids Cancer Ride to raise money and awareness in the fight against childhood cancer.
But gearing up to get on the bike for the 7,600-kilometre cross-Canada trek was no ordinary task for Andy.
While the cancer is in remission, Andy is now legally blind and has severe epilepsy which his mother said is a result of receiving adult doses of radiation as a child.
Andy uses a guide dog named Boston, and his mother said he can see an area about the size of a dime directly in front of him.
While she gave him the go-ahead to ride, Janice Brooks admits she initially thought her son - whom she described as a "self-avowed couch potato" - was "nuts."
"It was easy for me to say 'Yes,' because I figured, (he's) 16, you know, three days he'll talk himself out of it," she said. "But in actual fact, he started to train."
Andy said meeting Armstrong "inspired me to do this and just to overcome anything."
"Being a cancer survivor for 10 years, it gives you, like, a different perspective on life," he said. "If you're battling with cancer, you feel so down and you want to just quit, and once you get out of it, you say, 'I want to help people. I want to go do something."'
Andy teamed up with tandem partner Peter Murk, gave up soda, McDonald's and played fewer XBox games in addition to the four hours of daily training in preparation for the trek, which kicked off June 2 in Vancouver.
Organized by Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation and Sears Canada, the ride is expected to raise $1.4 million for kids living with and beyond cancer.
Andy said the experience has been thrilling.
"It's so frickin' cool," he said. "You're on the bike, you're going, like, top speed down hills and up hills 60 kilometres an hour and it's, like, 'Wow!' It's like a speeding bullet."
There are generally four hours on each leg of the ride, followed by time off for lunch, about four hours being shuttled up the road and a couple of hours of sleep before waking up and doing it all over again, Andy said.
Andy said he's riding about 250 kilometres a day. And while the hills can be tough, as well as waking up at 3 a.m., he hasn't let it get to him.
"Every day's a challenge," he said, "but you get through it."
Andy and Murk rolled into a west-end Toronto mall parking lot Friday along with other cyclists to cheers from an enthusiastic crowd at a rally and pit stop.
They later headed downtown to the Hospital for Sick Children for a special card-signing ceremony, followed by a a public celebration with Ontario Lt.-Gov. David Onley and Toronto Mayor David Miller slated to attend.
