'I will never quit walking': Guy Poole walks 3,000 kilometres for diabetes research
Guy Poole walks each year to raise money for the Canadian Diabetes Association
Just as Guy Poole hiked through Newfoundland's Butter Pot Park on Monday, he repeated a pledge: He'll never stop walking.
The 72-year-old says he now has more than 3,000 kilometres under his belt, piled up through fundraising walks for diabetes he began after his wife Elizabeth died from the disease in 2004.
This year, the 11th year of Liz's Walk, Poole is travelling from Gander to St. John's, where he is set to arrive on Wednesday.
"I'll keep walking until they finds a cure or I can't walk anymore," he promised. "I won't go back on my word. I'm here for the long haul."
In her memory
Poole's started the fundraiser in 2006, and spent the first few iterations of the yearly event walking on the major roads of Labrador.
Born in St. Lewis, the Labrador man says he started the fundraiser to "take up the fight" against the disease that took his wife.
"When she passed away, I lost everything. I lost my wife, I lost my best friend," he said.
Poole explains he was walking near St. Lewis one night, "a beautiful night, like it was when [they] used to walk years ago," when he decided he'd take action to help diabetes research.
Since then, he says he's raised about $100,000 for the Canadian Diabetes Association.
All across the province
Over the years, Poole has tackled stretches of highway right across the province.
Throughout his travels, he's had hundreds of people stop and talk about his fundraising. Poole says nearly everyone he speaks with knows the gravity of the disease.
"You find out that that individual got diabetes, and if that individual don't have diabetes, then someone in their family got diabetes," he said.
"It's almost like there's hardly a family out there that's not touched."
Poole travels with a support truck, manned by his brother-in-law and self-proclaimed road manager Robert Mesher, who has been travelling alongside Poole since the beginning.
The truck is often filled with food, gear and friends and family who check in along his route.
He has a camper van, but said he is almost always invited in to hotels and houses to spend the night during his trips.
Guy Poole has run charity walks for eleven years. He travels with a box of worn-out shoes he has used. <a href="https://t.co/jw2UqzSUqV">pic.twitter.com/jw2UqzSUqV</a>
—@GarrettBarryHe also travels with a box of worn-out sneakers, a reminder — alongside his blisters and other foot injuries — of the physical toll of thousands of kilometres of walking.
Poole keeps a 5 km/h pace, according to Mesher, but the walker said you will not hear him gripe very often.
"I'm doing this walk anywhere from 10 to 14 days a year, and the people who got diabetes, they got it for the rest of their lives," Poole said.
"So you won't hear me complain very much about my feet."
Donations for the Liz's Walk campaign can be made through the Canadian Diabetes Association.
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