An Ottawa man is shining a light on the drug crisis, as well as mental health, by walking from Niagara Falls to Ottawa later this year.
Greg McPherson lost his son Aric to the drug crisis in 2019, and two years later Aric’s friend Madeleine took her own life.
McPherson will be doing the walk, nearly 600km, in May with hopes of raising money for a number of causes. While he is training physically by walking on the treadmill daily, he notes a big part of the preparation is mental.
McPherson says when the COVID-19 pandemic started, he wasn’t in a great place mentally, and had to do something to get his mind off of everything going on in the world, as well as in his life.
Since then, he’s done a number of walks to raise awareness, including walking through all 24 wards in Ottawa in 24 hours – roughly 100km.
Over the course of two weeks in May he will circle Lake Ontario, with a few detours along the way, ending at Ottawa City Hall on June 1st. His website, OTR4MentalHealth.com, includes his route for this walk as well as previous walks he’s done to support the cause. Through the website, he raises funds that are then donated back to mental health initiatives across the province.
He says walking is now his go-to method of clearing his mind, but it doesn’t always help.
The 600km walk this year will start on May 19th in Niagara Falls, at the same location his son Aric once shared a photo with a message of hope from exactly six years prior. McPherson plans on walking with his son Aaron to start the journey.
He’s set to walk through our region reaching Shannonville on May 26th. On the 27th he will travel from Shannonville through Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Deseronto, and Napanee ending in Odessa. Then on the 28th he will leave Odessa and head towards Kingston.
Greg says he hopes to see residents joining him for the walk, as a number of local politicians along the route will be as well.
Written by Matt Latour
