For the last three years, Kate MacEachern has been walking to raise awareness and funds for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
She walked through Ponoka Monday, June 1 as part of her Long Way Home campaign and met with some members of the Ponoka Legion as part of her tour across the country. In 2007, MacEachern was working at the Edmonton army base when an accident took her life to a major turn.
She suffered a broken back, neck, a fractured skull and was bleeding in her brain and that event changed her life forever. Later she suffered a stroke from the brain injury and was told she may not recover.
MacEachern did recover, but the accident changed her perspective on life and while she was working on recovery, she was also diagnosed with PTSD in 2010.
“It also gave me a very clear understanding of how hard it is to come back from that. To survive, to learn about it, to not succumb to it,” said MacEachern.
Her goal with the walk was to create healthy conversations around the mental illness and she grabbed her rucksack and started walking. Support for the journey over the years has been positive and benefactors this year are Paws Fur Thought, the Nash Project, Alpha K9 and Wounded Warriors Weekend Foundation.
“We’re wrapping it up this year with coping and healing,” said MacEachern.
She will have walked all of Canada in this last year, except for the northern portion of the country. Between training and the walk, MacEachern has covered a distance of more than 10,000 kilometres.
“I didn’t even realize it,” she said when she grasped the milestone.
This year, MacEachern’s 11-year-old son walked with her for the first month of the trail. She feels that was an important experience for him.
“When you talk about things with children, they become less scary,” she said.
Over the years, MacEachern has heard many stories from individuals, which is something that has kept her going. There have been times that getting up in the morning to continue walking was the last thing she wanted to do, but those stories inspired her.
“It hurts physically but ‘quit’ becomes a foreign word,” she said.
There are countless times someone has pulled over on the road to tell MacEachern about their challenges with PTSD, and it is at those times she feels she is doing the right thing.
“It gives that last 10 kilometres that you need,” she said.
They average 40 kilometres a day. She says her swat boots have been the best shoes for the job. One of the fun aspects of this year’s hike was bringing her son with her.
For more information on the walk or to donate check MacEachern’s website at: www.thelongwayhome.ca.