Canal Pursuit on Track to Run Over 700km While Ending the Stigma Around Mental Health
/The Canal Pursuit is an annual relay race aiming to raise awareness of depression and to end the stigma of mental illness. The run started on Saturday in Port Severn and will continue until Aug. 28, when it will end on Parliament Hill.
Clay Williams holds the Canal Pursuit flag with Julie-Anne Wideman. Wideman describes herself as Canal Pursuits Communications Manager, chauffeur, chef and any other title they may need. Photo by Angela O’Grady.
Runners set off from the Peterborough Lift Lock on Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m. to complete a 40 km leg of the over 700 km journey.
A familiar face in the running and mental health scene in Peterborough was gearing up to run on Tuesday. Julie Vallières has been participating in the Canal Pursuit for five years and this year is joined by her daughter Maya Poulin. Jonel Boyko joins Vallières’s team called ‘Running is Fun.‘ This is Boyko’s second year participating.
Team ‘Running is Fun’ poses with Williams. Photo By Angela O’Grady
Canal Pursuit has been raising awareness and fundraising for mental health for seven years.
Organizer Clay Williams created the run in memory of his two older brothers who took their own lives and to honour his wife, daughter, and his sister who live with mood disorders.
Williams ran his first marathon in 2005 and raised money for a different charity each year.
During the summer of 2014, he was beginning to notice the growing media coverage of mental health in Canada.
“I knew my next fundraiser had to be for mental health,” he said. “But the more I learned about Canada’s mental health care system and how fragmented and in its infancy it was the more I realized I needed to stick with it.”
Williams says people have started to say ‘see you next year’ at the end of the run each year so there is no end in sight.
On each leg of the run, Williams packs a Canadian flag into the backpack of a participant. Before he started the run Williams asked participants and supporters to write the name of someone that struggles with depression, anxiety or any mood disorder on his flag. That flag is carried the whole stretch of the run and then displayed at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
“We sign the flag, then carry it the full distance of the run as a symbol that you don’t have to carry your burdens alone,” he says. “I’ve had the honour of carrying it up Parliament Hill six years in a row and I’ll run the last leg again this year.”
Williams packs the flag into Vallières backpack before she starts her run for the day. Photo by Angela O’Grady.
