Ex-soldier’s final walk for PTSD-awareness to span over 3,000 kms
Posted Apr 16, 2015 7:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In 2012 and 2013, she made headlines for her long walks from the Maritimes to eastern Canada, raising money for veterans and awareness for post-traumatic stress disorder and now she’s getting ready for her final ‘Long Way Home.’
Former soldier Kate MacEachern will walk from Nipawin, Saskatchewan to Chilliwack, British Columbia starting May 1st and she’s expected to finish her walk on July 24th for the Wounded Warriors weekend in that community.
The entire path is over 3,000 kilometres.
“It’s the longest one we’ve ever done and step by step, it’s the longest one that anyone’s actually ever done,” she said.
In 2012, she walked from CFB Gagetown to her hometown of Antigonish, NS, which was 576 kms in full military gear, while raising $20,000 for the military group Soldier On.
The next year, the trek was from Cape Breton to Ottawa, an 1,876 km walk over 45 days for Military Minds.
The 36-year-old’s final challenge is scheduled for 85 days, including multiple stops in Alberta, hitting Calgary on June 6th.
“Between training and actual walking kilometres, when I hit Edmonton, I’m going to have passed 10,000 (kms) in three years,” she said.
But her three years of advocacy work has come with serious criticism, including from former soldiers and friends.
During her first venture, she had full backing from the military and then-Minister of Defence Peter MacKay walked with her on her last leg and praised her advocacy work.
“Your compassion, your passion for your friends, your colleagues, your comrades, to undertake this enormous journey on their behalf is such a living tribute to those who wore the uniform, who continue to wear the uniform,” he said at the time.
However in 2013 when she was planning her next trip, MacEachern and her superiors could not come to an agreement on giving her the required time off, as soldiers are allowed 25 days off annually.
The news didn’t come as a surprise to MacEachern who said at the time she knew her career was likely over, because she felt the advocacy work was too important to give up.
But her decision angered many in the military, including soldiers who called her a quitter.
“Unfortunately they’re still gone,” she said. “We had a lot of people reaching out actually and taking us apart, it got to the point that we had to pull down our website, pull down our Facebook page, pull down everything because we had some very strongly-opinionated people, that had the opinion that I’m a quitter, that I was never a soldier, I was never this, I was never that.”
Despite the backlash, MacEachern holds no ill will towards the military and has no regrets.
“The relationship I have with the military is actually very positive,” she said. “I left my career to continue on with everything I had learned while I was still serving, integrity, morality, standing up for those that can’t necessarily stand on their own.”
The goal for this year’s walk is hefty, as MacEachern and her team are hoping to raise $100,000 for four charities, including Paws Fur Thought, The Nash Project, Alpha K9 and Wounded Warriors Weekend.
The charities help soldiers and veterans with PTSD, which MacEachern herself suffers from, stemming from a horrific training accident in 2007 in which she suffered life-threatening injuries, including a broken neck, spinal cord damage and a fractured skull.
Through the recovery, the symptoms, the criticism and the challenge of the walks themselves, MacEachern said the work has been completely fulfilling and although this will be her last journey, she will continue to work on behalf of veterans and soldiers in some capacity.
While she’s still figuring out what she and her 12-year-old son Tyler will do after her upcoming venture, the final walk will be a fitting end to the physical portion of her work.
“I lost a fair bit of friends that I had, but the true ones, they stayed right with me,” she said. “My brothers and sisters in Alberta, I cannot wait to get out there.”
“Walking back onto CFB Edmonton, it’s going to be the first time I’m going to see them again since I left my career, so it’s been a really mixed year, but with everyone that I’ve lost, I’ve gained 10.”
For more on MacEachern’s walk, click here.
