Nipawin a meaningful launch spot for PTSD walk

The Nipawin launch location for the final leg of a cross-country walk to raise awareness for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has a lot of significance for a former Canadian soldier.

In 2012, Kate MacEachern, who has been living with PTSD, started her journey. She walked 576 kilometres (km) from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia. She completed the second leg of her walk, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to Ottawa in 2013, covering a distance of 1,864 km. On Friday, she will start to walk the final leg, from Nipawin to Chilliwack, B.C.

The theme of this year’s journey is what it looks like to heal, and her organization, The Long Way Home, discovered Wounded Warriors Weekend, which was founded in Nipawin. The end point of the walk is significant too: it’s the site of the 2015 Wounded Warriors Weekend. 

MacEachern attended the 2014 event in Alberta, and described it as a “game changer” for her.

“There’s so many of my brothers and sisters that were there, so many people that started their healing journey through that,” she said.

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“And the love and support for our troops out of Saskatchewan is just insurmountable.”

She said the route will mean that once she reaches Chilliwack, she will have walked the entirety of Canada.

MacEachern will be on the move for eight to 10 hours each day, covering an average of 30 to 40 km daily. The days will begin at 6 a.m. and will end when the sun starts to set, or when she’s met the day’s kilometre goal.

She will be making stops in Prince Albert, North Battleford and Lloydminster, and plans to arrive in Chilliwack on July 24.

“Everything is always a learning curve, whether it’s the physicality of it or the mental strength you need to do something like this,” she said. “Year one, year two, we basically took all of the positives that we’ve learned and we’ve taken the negatives, the mistakes, the gaps in the training plan, you know, the things we could improve on, but basically just threw them all together.”

On this year’s walk, she will be joined by four therapy horses and two therapy dogs from the Lethbridge, Alta.-based Neglected Animals Serving Humanity (NASH) Project. The non-profit trains horses and dogs, primarily to help people with PTSD.

MacEachern complimented both the service dog and equine therapy programs, saying lives are being changed every day.

Through this year’s walk, she’s looking to raise $100,000, which will go towards Wounded Warriors Weekend, the NASH Project, PAWS Fur Thought and Alpha K9.

MacEachern said each benefactor would receive $25,000, which would mean five or six service dogs trained and five or six lives changed. For Wounded Warriors Weekend, it means more vets, soldiers and first responders starting their journey.

MacEachern’s journey

MacEachern, from Antigonish, N.S., was a tanker in the Canadian Armed Forces for eight years, and in 2007, while on the job, she was in an accident. It left her with a broken neck, spinal cord damage and a fractured skull. Doctors told her family that she’d be in a vegetative state for an indefinite period of time. She left the hospital little over a week later.

Afterwards, she suffered a stroke, recovered and returned to work.

MacEachern has had to cope with PTSD for years. She said the first couple of those years, the disorder controlled her. But she learned how to take control of it and take her life back, through support and what she calls her “mental health tool box,” she said.

She acquired those tools through the walk and other “cathartic” experiences, she added.

“I’ve learned how to cope and how to live, instead of just existing, with PTSD.”

Through the walk, she’s hoping to convey a message about unification.

“It doesn’t matter what uniform you wear, what clothing you wear, where you’re from, we are all one. Although we’re connected by PTSD, we basically walk the same road and the same journey and the same commitment we all need to healing, to getting home.”

MacEachern will be wearing a GPS tracker throughout the walk. To follow her progress, go to The Long Way Home’s website. 

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames