Advocate runs through Canmore
Nov 10, 2011 06:00 am | By Dave Whitfield | Rocky Mountain Outlook
With winter approaching, there may be nobody who is more looking forward to getting off the road before poor conditions strike across the country than David McGuire.
McGuire, you see, is a Lower Mainlander who has been running his way across Canada, at a marathon a day pace, to raise awareness and funds for the brain injured.
On Tuesday (Nov. 1), he stopped in Canmore, where Town council proclaimed it as A Run to Remember Day.
McGuire, 38, started his epic campaign when he dipped his foot in the Atlantic Ocean on April Fool’s Day. He now hopes to finish his journey by dipping a foot in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 8.
In between, he’s met people on the road, spoken at events and schools, collected funds and braved all the weather Mother Nature could throw at him – at 40 kilometres per day.
His marathon event has been coordinated and supported by BrainTrust Canada and his only companion during the event has been BrainTrust’s Melissa Wild, his tour manager, public relations person, support vehicle driver, etc.
A confirmed non-runner some years ago, things changed in 2005, when McGuire suffered a brain injury himself. At the time, he wasn’t sure if an injury which caused bleeding in his brain occurred before, or after, a fall in his bathtub.
At any rate, after the fall, he was in a coma for nine days and when doctors opened his skull to investigate his injury, they found dried blood inside. “It was some kind of brain aneurism or stroke, but they’re not sure what caused it,” said McGuire.
At the time, experts told McGuire’s family he may not walk again, but as his condition improved, he wasn’t willing to accept that prognosis.
He began walking again as physiotherapy, though, then ran his first marathon in 2006, a year after his injury. What prompted him to take up a cause was the lack of support he found available when he left the hospital.
“That was the start of my whole adventure into the world of disability,” said McGuire. “I realized there was a real lack of resources. I went to a brain injury clinic to complain about it and found it was closed down due to lack of funding.
“I had family and I felt bad for people who didn’t have any support. The big thing for me is I don’t want anyone else to go through what I did.”
McGuire has been aiming his brain injury safety message at those aged 24 and under; a group which includes bike riders, skiers, snowmobilers, etc. The group is one which should be embracing use of helmets and taking safety precautions.
According to BrainTrust statistics, one person is injured every three minutes in Canada, with the highest incidence of traumatic injury occurring among men aged 16-24.
“More people in North America are likely to have a brain injury than anything else,” said McGuire. “It can be a concussion, it can happen in the workplace, because of an assault, so many reasons. And the amount it costs to treat compared to what’s available is not on an even keel.
“That’s why a big part of the message is prevention. If we can reduce the percentage of funding that’s going to people who are injured, say by wearing a helmet, that frees up money for people already injured.
“It takes a lot to learn to walk and talk again.”
McGuire’s tour is also partially sponsored by Foot Solutions, where he works parttime. A former bank collections agent, McGuire now finds it hard to hold down a steady job due to memory loss. “They kind of want you to remember to get money from customers.”
He’s not sure what he’ll do after his months-long cross-Canada tour.
“I’m not sure how to put this on a resumé,” he said. “I used to be a bank collector, but that job was outsourced while I was in hospital. I pretty much left the hospital with no home, no job and no memory.
“I thought, ‘what would they say about me at a funeral?’ That I used to be a good bill collector and a top notch Xbox player? I could eat pizza and play video games until 4 a.m?
“So it took something big to get me away from that.”
When McGuire reaches the Pacific, he intends to smoke a cigar his wife Mandy gave him before heading out.
Since leaving St. John’s in April, McGuire has found that a pair of shoes is lasting him about 500 kilometres and he’s collected many good memories.
Just east of Canmore, a big rig pulled over in front of him and a truck driver offered up some cash. In Newfoundland, he braved a whiteout blizzard with big rigs blasting past and reducing visibility to zero in swirling snow.
“Because of my memory loss, I mostly remember extremes; really good or really bad,” he said.
In Cape Breton, a Grade 3 student asked him whether he liked the old David or the new David better. “That kind of blew me away… a question like that from a girl in Grade 3. That’s the best question I’ve had.”
Two days out of St. John’s, a real “mountain man type with a big beard came running down a hill yelling ‘I heard about you’. He wanted to make a donation and it seemed kind of surreal that he already knew about me.”
In the end, said McGuire, his cross-Canada quest has returned some faith for him. “I was very frustrated with the available social services when I started, but my faith in humanity has come back.
“I realize there are a lot of really great people in Canada.”
To donate to the McGuire and BrainTrust project, visit aruntoremember.com or by texting ‘Brain’ to 45678 to contribute $5 through your phone bill.
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