“Must see” TED talk puts Whitby paddleboarder turned mental health advocate in spotlight

The accolades keep coming for mental health advocate Mike Shoreman, with his latest brush with fame a TEDx released last Wednesday – at the onset of Mental Health Awareness Month – that is being called a “must-see” discussion on mental health challenges in Canada.

The talk, said Shoreman, looks at statistics that show one in five Canadians are facing mental health issues and “how we can look at that in a new way” by creating widespread systems of support for those experiencing mental health challenges at work, in schools and in the community.

It was delivered at Western University in London in early February “so it’s been a waiting game wondering when it would be released,” Shoreman said. “That it’s released at the beginning of an awareness month is incredible and I am looking forward to it spreading over the next year.”

(A TED talk is a recorded public-speaking presentation that was originally given at a TED – technology, entertainment and design – annual event and is now made available on the TED website under free license. The talks are frequently featured on social media and multimedia sites like YouTube, Netflix, Facebook and Linkedin.)

Shoreman, who has been a hot commodity on the lecture circuit since his epic crossing of all five Great Lakes on a paddleboard in 2022 – the first person with a disability to do so – has received an outpouring of support since the release of the talk, titled How to keep going when life seems impossible.

“I’ve had messages from politicians, businesses and educational institutions. Psychologists have asked to add it to their websites as a learning resource,” he said, adding that he will be the keynote speaker at the National Suicide Prevention Conference in Vancouver at the end of the month.

Keka Das Gupta, a fellow mental health advocate and public speaker, called Shoreman’s talk a “powerful, collective solution” to tackle mental health challenges. “His idea is easily doable for all of us and it’s brilliant. We all have the power to change lives.”

Long-time Toronto writer Liz Braun said the best way to find out how to keep going when life seems impossible is to ask her friend. “Just ask Mike. This is a must-see talk about mental health.”

And Whitby MP Ryan Turnbull also chimed in, calling Shoreman “one of the most inspirational people I know – and he’s from Whitby.”

“Imagine if you had a group of  four people who are ready to jump in and lift us up when we need it,” Shoreman said in his address, noting he felt alone and isolated in the early days after his his diagnosis. “I don’t want anyone to feel the way I did.”

“My four have been my rock; my champions. Whenever I needed them.”

Parkwood Clinic, the centre for addiction research in Oshawa, also reached out, Shoreman said, and asked if the TED talk could be used as a resource for support systems for patients and visitors at the facility. “Now it’s on the first website that is not my own. This is now a mental health resource being used by mental health professionals and I am so excited for the next year.”

He has also partnered with VR/AR company The Grid to bring experiential learning into his advocacies, with a program being developed to “immerse audiences into the great lakes with me.”

A lot has happened for Shoreman in the past five or six years. While he can never forget 2018 – a year in which the Whitby paddleboard coach was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, a rare neurological condition that left him paralyzed, with vertigo, hearing and vision loss, ultimately leading to depression and a mental health breakdown – the events that followed have also been unforgettable.

Told he would never walk again, let alone get on a paddleboard, Shoreman overcame his fears, assembled a crack team of people who believed in him and crossed all five Great Lakes on a paddleboard in a single memorable summer two years ago.

Shoreman then transitioned from paddleboarder to mental health advocate and travelled the country taking about mental health issues and suicide prevention, especially involving young people, as well as speaking to organizations about corporate wellness and resilience.

Mike Shoreman accepting the Paul Harris Award from Rotary International

Then there was the documentary – When Hope Breaks Through – which has created a lot of buzz on the festival circuit after it premiered at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts last September, debuting in Durham Region in October with a special World Mental Health Day screening at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in October.

The film, by Michigan filmmaker Matthew Wagner, is the inspiring story of Shoreman’s journey, and explores the mental health crisis in Canada and beyond, including our relationship with our own mental health, as it immerses the audience in Shoreman’s multi-lake crossings and the challenges he faced both leading up to and during that history-making summer of ’22.

Shoreman and his paddleboard have also been honoured by the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, which opens a brand new 65,000-square-foot museum and lakefront campus on Little Lake (on the Trent-Severn Waterway) this Saturday, and by Rotary International, which presented him with their prestigious Paul Harris Award earlier this year.