Friend from Winnipeg Walk - Barb

I met Barb in Winnipeg and below is her story...

Well I did it! My team did it!!!! This past weekend Shelley L, Shelley S and myself walked the journey we stated in January. Thank you to all of my supporters I was able to raise just over $2000 and our team raised over $6000 toward Cancer Care Manitoba. In total this year over 2 million dollars was raised thanks to people like yourselfs.

Our weekend started Friday with registration and all the information we needed for the weekend. We were up bright and early Saturday morning 5am and to Assiniboine Park by 6:30 am. Opening ceremonies started around 7 am with stretching and speeches to get us going for the weekend!What an amazing day this turned out to be. It proved to be emotionally and physically challenging day as we walked 35 km through the streets of Winnipeg.

It was amazing the people sitting outside their homes cheering us on and the kids with juice and water and snacks for us as we walked by. You would perk up and think how wonderful Winnipeggers are for supporting us! By lunch time on Saturday we were exhausted but was very surprised to see my husband Marc and our two kids Halle and Hayden waiting for us as we came into lunch! It really perked me up and made me keep on going.

After lunch we kept on moving our feet sore and our legs tired but we kept going chatting away to make the time pass faster! After the last pit stop we had another 3km to go and didn’t know if we would make it. But we persevered and kept going to make it the finish of the first day! There was no better site then seeing my mom waiting for us at the end with hugs!

We headed to the medical tent where Shelley L and I had our feet looked at and of course blisters we did have! Shelley L.’s baby toes were not doing well but she is a trooper. Shelley S feet were not as bad as our but she hurt in other places. Then off for supper and for massages which were wonderful.

We decided not to spend the night in the tents and went home to have a good night sleep.Up bright and early again Sunday morning at 5am. Back to Assiniboine Park where we had our feet looked at and a quick breakfast only to start walking by 7:15am! This is our short day only 25 kms today. It starts off good and we are feeling very good all considering.

Along the route in the morning we met up with two wonderful ladies who I am now calling friends Pat and MJ. MJ is a cancer survivor. What an inspiration these ladies are to Shelley, Shelley and myself, let me tell you why. They are from Toronto and are walking all 7 that is right all 7 Weekend to End Breast Cancer walks through Canada. They did there first one last weekend and finished! Well who knew they would end up sticking with us for the whole day. They probably thought newbies they need help!!! Well whatever they thought and why they stuck with us it does not matter because all that matters is that now we have added two more people to our team! It was nice to learn about their lives and what we have in common and kept things interesting.

At the last pit stop I can honestly say I did not know if I would make it but Pat and MJ told Shelley, Shelley and myself that we must complete the last 4km b/c the feeling we will receive at the end is one that we will never forget. So together we kept on walking and finished the 60 km around 2pm!

What a feeling of emotion and pain we all had towards the end but somehow the pain disappeared briefly when we got to the end and made me finish! What an unbelievable feeling I had I can not explain to anyone how I felt at that particular moment.

Closing ceremonies were emotional and draining as 1100 walkers walked in together. I want to say what kept me going I would think of what all cancer patients must go through the chemo and radiation and what I have done this past weekend is nothing compared to what they have and are going through in their lives!The injury reports are Shelley L may loose a toenail or two and has an infected baby two but she made it and was an inspiration to myself, Shelley S. also has a few blisters on her feet but was an inspiration to me.

Myself I have a few blisters and was very sore as were my team.Thank you to my team Shelley L for talking me into doing this and Shelley S for joining us along we all had our own reasons for walking and we succeeded!

Thank you to Pat and MJ for taking us under your wing and for becoming my friends!Thank you to my family for supporting me and helping me get through my journey I could not have done this without your support.Thank you grandma and my mother-in-law Therese who is no longer with us for your courage battle to get through this horrible disease. Barb