Man begins Lethbridge-Edmonton walk to raise awareness & funds for lung disease

That has inspired him to make the second journey for Walk to Breathe.

In support of the Lung Association of Alberta & Northwest Territories, Sadleir walked from Calgary to Edmonton last year, travelling on foot for 330 kilometres in 11 days.

He says the longer walk this year will be more grueling, but it is a mission he is willing to take on.

Sadleir adds that he is just “an average guy” who is middle-aged and has gout and arthritis.

“How do I train for 30 kilometres a day, rain or shine? You don’t know what to expect weather-wise – wind, all that stuff. I found it physically impossible to actually get up to 30 kilometres a day for training. Haven’t been able to do that, nor was I able to do that last year, just not enough minutes in the day. Hopefully, my body carries me through and I get climatized those first few days, that’s really all I can do.”

There was one thing that kept him going in last year’s walk and what he hopes will get him through it again this year.

“What really inspired it is the people we met along the way last year, the stories. My parents became rockstars last year. People who were going through their own lung disease wanted to meet my dad, get a picture taken with my dad, talk to my mom because she was the family rock behind all of this and kind of kept everyone sane through the entire process. Just to hear those honks, see those waves, and see the support along the entire journey was just tremendous.”

Last year, Sadleir’s goal was to raise $22,000 for the Lung Association but ended up getting around $33,000.

The goal for the 2021 walk is $50,000, a number he says is fitting because it is a 500-kilometre journey and his father had the lung transplant five years ago.

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than $24,000 had already been donated.

Organ donation is especially important to Toby and Bernadine Boulet, who will be supporting Sadleir during Walk to Breathe. They are the parents of Logan Boulet, one of 16 people who died in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018.

Toby Boulet says awareness of organ donation is equally as important as fundraising for it.

“Right now in Canada, about 32 per cent of Canadians actually register online to become organ donors but 92 per cent say they want to be organ donors. It’s very very important to, first, register, and second, probably more importantly, is to tell your family, tell your friends, tell whoever you need to tell that you’re registering to be an organ donor, and if something happens to you, you can become an organ donor.”

Sadleir will start his walk at 8:00 am on Wednesday, July 7 at House of Cars Lethbridge at 324 Mayor Magrath Drive South. From there, he will head down 3 Ave South towards Park Place Mall and connect to Highway 3.

The first stop at the end of day one will be in Monarch. For the Southern Alberta portion, Sadleir will then go to Barons, Claresholm, back up the highway by Barons, then to High River.

He hopes to reach his destination in Edmonton on July 23.

You can follow his trek on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram as he will be posting frequent updates there.

Donations to Walk to Breathe can be made here.

by David Opinko

Man begins Lethbridge-Edmonton walk to raise awareness & funds for lung disease

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