walking 60 km is hard. But cancer is so much harder.

All this week, I have been writing about our Weekend to End Women’s Cancers team, the Winchester Hospital Heelers… but I’ve yet to tell you anything about the actual focus of this event: the 60 km walk through the streets of Ottawa!

Of course, there is a certain amount of training required to prepare your muscles and your feet to walk 60 km over two days. To get ready, we organize a number of training walks throughout the months leading up to the Weekend, and we learn tips and tricks about what (and what not) to wear, and how to stay hydrated, prevent blisters, and keep our muscles loose. No doubt you will have heard the horror stories! Yes… there will be some blisters. And chafing. And even some lost toenails. But compared to the rigours of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, what really are a few lost toenails?

The walk itself is an amazing experience – it is a perfectly organized and executed march that would leave any military logistics officer in awe. As we make our way through the city, walking 35 km on the first day and 25 km on the second, the most enthusiastic and helpful volunteers imaginable keep us safe, fed, hydrated, and smiling. All along the route, pedestrians clap and cheer us on, and cars honk their support. Shopkeepers offer bottled water and, in the residential neighbourhoods, people post signs that thank us for our efforts. Little children serve Dixie cups of water and lemonade, offer gum, and – when the weather has been really hot – invite us to play in their sprinklers. It doesn’t get much better than that!

As we walk, we are achieving our goal – to raise the awareness of women’s cancers, and the funds necessary to improve treatment programs and advance the research that will one day create a future without these cancers.

If you see us this weekend, on June 5th and 6th, honk your horn and give us a thumb’s up! Your support means more than you know. There’s no doubt about it; walking 60 km is hard. But cancer is so much harder.