The importance of mental health ‘lightkeepers’ showcased at book launch at Whitby’s Ontario Shores

In his darkest hours, paddleboarder turned mental health advocate Mike Shoreman turned to those closest to him to shine a light to help guide him to safe harbour.

Wednesday evening, with the Ontario Shores Mental Health Centre on Whitby waterfront as the backdrop, a room full of lightkeepers showed up to support their own at the launch of Shoreman’s latest book: Lightkeepers – the power of becoming Safe Harbour in the mental health crisis.

It was a room full of friends, each touched in some way by Shoreman’s work in breaking down barriers to mental health support, who packed the lecture hall at Ontario Shores for the launch, with longtime Breakfast Television co-host Kevin Frankish in the host chair.

“I’m so excited and grateful for all the people who lifted me up and shone their light on me when I was in the darkest place I have ever been. They showed me what it means to become safe harbour for someone struggling,” Shoreman said. “Lightkeepers, they are all around us. Thank you to mine.”

“Thank you to my lightkeepers.”

Shoreman was a paddleboard coach in 2018 when he 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 and an attempt to take his own life.

After that, his family intervened and he entered mental health treatment, giving Shoreman a new will to live, his first real appreciation for ‘lightkeepers’ and a renewed determination to get back on a paddle board.

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.

“All of us have mental health issues, and we all experience challenges and rough waters at different times, but to be able to be that person for someone else who is struggling, is a very special thing. To become a Lightkeeper is powerful.”

The two years since have been filled with accolades for Whitby’s favourite son, including a celebrated TEDx talk, recognition from Rotary International, his first book – Crash and Rise: Diaries of an Unbalanced Paddler – and a documentary of his lake crossings.

When Hope Breaks Through, by Michigan filmmaker Matthew Wagner, 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 the next month at where else? Ontario Shores.

Shoreman has been a hot ticket on the lecture circuit, motivating individuals and organizations and showing them that the extraordinary is possible.

He is also (quite literally) the face of Ontario Shores in a new print campaign called The Faces of Mental Health and has been invited to deliver the keynote address at the Rick Hansen Accessibility Conference in Vancouver in March.

And he’s done it all in his own personable style, making it, as Frankish said at the book launch, “easy to see why we can all be friends with Mike.”

“This book will spark a conversation on mental health and I hope inspire people to be someone’s safe harbour.”

Shoreman read from a few chapters from the book and took some questions from the audience, with several people asking how they can be ‘lightkeepers’ for others in need of mental health support.

“Leading with empathy is critical both for mental health professionals and to be a lightkeepers,” he said. “I hope this will help people know that they can be that light. We all have the ability to be the lightkeeper for others.”

“When I was alone I felt hopeless. I never want anyone to feel that way.”

Canada is in a mental health crisis and millions of Canadians are dealing with mental health challenges and too many of them are doing that silently, he added. “To be the one who provides support is incredibly important.”

“It gives us the opportunity to create change in a community and make it stronger.”

Lightkeepers: the power of becoming Safe Harbour in the mental health crisis is available on Amazon books.

Mike Shoreman and Kevin Frankish