Lionel Strang’s at it again. Or so his T-shirt says: “One more year. Day 2557.”
For the past five years, the Midhurst man has donned his most comfortable shoes and walked home — from Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.
“It usually takes me five to six days,” says the spry 67-year-old preparing for the last leg of his journey up St. Vincent Street from the waterfront in Barrie and to a final barbecue in Springwater Township on Saturday. “It’s harder this year because it’s so hot.”
After being diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma in 2012 and being given a year to live, Strang agreed to be a medical study subject and found himself in an experimental treatment.
That then opened a pathway to cutting-edge health care.
“I figured I was pretty much out of cards and choices,” says Strang, who for many years has owned the Young Drivers of Canada driving school in Barrie. “For a year, I was on this medicine. It was really nasty stuff.”
After that, he was able to access a year of immunotherapy. The biological therapy cancer treatment helps the immune system fight cancer, a process that Strang says is fairly involved at the beginning.
“I found those people (at Princess Margaret) very helpful and didn’t realize the psychological part of cancer is probably the worst part for people,” he says.
But it was quite a ride, and not a pleasant one. The emotional and psychological toll of the entire experience was quite overwhelming.
During the initial years, Barb Webster hosted a barbecue for him where his fundraising efforts began.
It was not long after completing the immunotherapy when, during a follow-up appointment, a Princess Margaret doctor asked how he was feeling. Could he walk alright?
“I said I feel like I could walk from here to my house. And that’s kind of when the light bulb went off,” Strang says.
Since that time, Strang has walked home the 100 kilometres every year, concluding at the Webster barbecue and raising $73,000 for the psychosocial oncology clinic for Princess Margaret in the process. He’s up over $20,000 this year and so close to making that $100,000 mark.
“Lionel’s remarkable determination to walk 100 kilometres from Toronto to Barrie encapsulates the courage of so many at the Princess Margaret who work tirelessly toward our vision to 'conquer cancer in our lifetime',” Dr. Miyo Yamashita, the foundation’s president and CEO, said in an emailed statement.
“The dollars raised by Lionel will help the Princess Margaret in its mission to revolutionize how patients and their families experience cancer, by detecting cancers earlier, advancing high-precision treatments and ensuring a human touch on cancer care through programs like the psychosocial oncology clinic.”
Strang says the psychological impacts were so severe and that’s where he decided he could contribute.
But it’s also the wonderful support he received from a good friend through the process that helps drive him.
“I felt like I wanted to do something because I realized the mental anguish was the worst part of cancer,” he says. “I thought I’d just raise money for the psychiatry department.”
“Now they said there’s no evidence of the disease,” Strang says, seven years later.
For more information about how to support the One More Year campaign, click here.
