On the road again

What started as a journey toward healing for Canadian Paralympian and University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate Lisa Franks (BE’06) has blossomed into a unique career path.

For nearly five years, Franks has been travelling solo around Canada and the United States while sharing her adventures through social media, including on Instagram and YouTube. As a wheelchair user who lives year-round in her accessible campervan, Franks aims to show people her life on the road while also highlighting the importance of accessible spaces.

“I realized that I could really help show the capabilities of people with disabilities,” Franks said in an interview with the Green&White. “That was one of the big motivations—not only for other people with disabilities, but just for everyone in the public to see what we’re capable of, if we have the right infrastructure to be able to explore and do things. So, it’s been really fulfilling to get messages from other people that have seen it and kind of opened their eyes to the possibilities.”

Sports, outdoor activities, and travel have long been a big part of Franks’ life. Born and raised in Moose Jaw, Sask., some of Franks’ earliest childhood sporting memories include throwing baskets on her driveway. After high school, Franks was drawn to USask’s College of Engineering because of her love of math, physics, and problem-solving.

“I thought at the time that maybe I could get into the design of adaptive equipment and things like that,” she said.

While that never became her full-time career, Franks—who became paralyzed from her chest down at the age of 14 due to a rare condition called arteriovenous malformation—continues to draw upon her engineering training in her daily life. For example, Franks’ campervan features a lift that she designed herself to assist in getting into her bed, which is located up high in her van. The rest of the van has also been designed so that Franks can do everything independently, including loading her bike with ramps and a winch.

In 1998, Franks’ love of sport was showcased when she began playing wheelchair basketball competitively with Team Saskatchewan. A couple of years later, while she was an engineering student at USask, Franks found support from her professors and peers as she balanced her post-secondary education with her dreams of competing at the international level. After moving into student housing on the USask campus and beginning her first year of university studies in September 2000, Franks soon left Saskatchewan for six weeks to compete in the 2000 Paralympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, where she won four gold medals and one silver medal in wheelchair racing. She then won two more gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic Summer Games in Athens, Greece, ultimately setting world records in the 100-metre, 200-metre, 400-metre, 800-metre, 1,500-metre, 5000-metre, and marathon events throughout her wheelchair racing career.

Franks’ passion for wheelchair basketball also continued and, in 2005, she joined the Canadian women’s national wheelchair basketball team as an alternate. In 2006 Franks made history when she became the first woman from Saskatchewan to be named to the national team; that achievement was followed by a gold medal at the 2006 world championship with Team Canada. Franks also represented Canada in wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, China, before retiring from the national team in 2008. Throughout her athletic career Franks has been the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including being inducted into the Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Regina in 2009, and being installed in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Franks describes her current lifestyle in her campervan as “very different” and “very unstructured” compared to her life in past years. Previously Franks—who earned her Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering at USask in 2006—worked in an office in Saskatoon as an engineer after completing university and had a rigorous training schedule as an elite athlete.

Now, through her work as a travel blogger, accessibility advocate, and content creator who runs the YouTube channel @KeepinitWheel306, Franks’ days are more relaxed and open-ended as she offers viewers and social media followers an inside look into her passion for travel and adventure.

Franks’ current life on the road began after she began exploring ways to mitigate chronic pain stemming from her athletic career. During her days playing wheelchair basketball, Franks fell on her shoulder and dislocated it after she was clipped from behind. She endured four surgeries to address the injury, which also resulted in some additional issues with her back and other parts of her body.

“I use my shoulders a lot, so I’m pretty dependent on them,” she said.

As Franks sought ways to “turn a corner with that pain,” she discovered that being outdoors and exploring nature were key elements to living a healthy lifestyle; as a result, she started taking vacation time from her office job to take short camping trips. Later, just before the global COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Franks spent three months camping and travelling in a small SUV.

“I loved it,” she said. “I was the happiest and healthiest I have been in a long time, and so I started dreaming of a way to do that more and more. So, I planned on having a van, which is what I’m in now.”

When Franks’ van arrived in the spring of 2021, and she was subsequently laid off from her job during the global pandemic, she found that the timing of the events was “serendipitous,” and she no longer needed to live full-time in Saskatoon. Franks knew that she still wanted to be out in nature and decided to make the switch to van life as a result.

For the last several years, Franks has spent the spring and fall seasons in British Columbia, where she enjoys exploring beautiful campsites with mountain views. For the winter, she heads down to California, where she takes part in parasurfing competitions. In fact, Franks was a member of Team Canada for the 2024 ISA World Para Surfing Championships in Huntington Beach, Calif., where she earned a bronze medal.

“Just a Prairie girl surfing in the ocean now,” Franks said. “I don’t know how that transpired, but again, it’s because of van life that that all that whole opportunity came about.”

Many other opportunities have arisen through Franks’ van adventures and social media stories. In December 2025, for example, she was named as the first keynote presenter to be announced for the Canadian Trail Summit, a national gathering of trail experts and enthusiasts from across the country that will take place in June 2026 in Winnipeg, Man. The event is hosted by Trans Canada Trail, the national charitable organization that advocates for, stewards, and champions Canada’s nationwide trail system.

“After my spinal cord injury, I genuinely believed my days of exploring the outdoors were over,” Franks said in a news article announcing her keynote presentation. “It took years of trial, error, and a lot of problem-solving to realize how much was still possible when thoughtful accessibility meets an adventurous spirit. I’m excited to share the stories that shaped me and to show how inclusive trails can open up a whole new world for so many of us.”

A Prairie person at heart, Franks still spends about five months a year in Saskatchewan, where she engages in speaking opportunities and travel and tourism-related gigs, such as taking over The Saskatchewander role for a week in the summer of 2025. She enjoys showcasing the beauty of Saskatchewan’s summers and engaging in outdoor activities such as mountain biking, kayaking, and hiking while living full-time in her accessible campervan, which she has named Mojo.

“Now it’s like I have so much freedom. I don’t even know where I might be sleeping tonight,” Franks said in the interview with the Green&White. “You know, it’s a lot of decision-making, but just being open to opportunities has given me so many different things to do in life—just this whole tourism and accessibility and blogging has just kind of slowly grown and given me more opportunities that way.”

Despite her ongoing travels and adventures, Franks remains connected to Saskatoon, where she continues to own a condominium. She also looks back, with fondness, at her time as a USask engineering student and the relationships she developed on campus. When asked about her advice for new USask students and young alumni, Franks advised to “just really appreciate” what USask and Saskatoon have to offer.

“I love the fact that it’s a smaller city and you can get across town, and you get to really know everyone,” she said. “I feel like in university I would just go out, and I knew everyone anywhere I went. And I just really love that part of USask; it’s such a close community.”