THUNDER BAY - Seven-thousand and two-hundred kilometres.
That’s the amount of ground stretching from Canada's west coast at Victoria B.C. to the east coast at St. John’s, N.L.
Ultra-marathoner Dave Proctor had plans to run that distance by foot in just 66 days, before his run was cut short because of a herniated disc.
He was barely one kilometre past the halfway point in Winnipeg M.B. before the pain became too intense.
On Wednesday, he made a stop in the same place Terry Fox’s cross-Canada journey came to an end 38 years ago.
“My goal was to break the trans-Canadian speed record, and raise over one million dollars,” Proctor said outside of Staples in Thunder Bay.
Proctor has been running in ultra-marathons for the last 13 years. He has broken a number of records including the Canadian record for fastest 24-hour race.
Although he was forced to surrender his journey at the half way point, his efforts to raise awareness for rare disease are from over.
Proctor’s nine-year-old son Sam has a rare disease named relapsing encephalopathy with cerebellar ataxia - the family calls it “RECA” for short.
The disease causes a lack of balance and coordination, and results in a "wobbly" posture.
“It took us over six years to get that diagnosis,” he said. “That’s six years of getting told that we aren’t funding research for that [disease].”
One in 12 Canadians suffer from a rare disease, with two-thirds of them being children.
“There’s a massive elephant in the room in medicine in Canada, and it’s name is rare disease,” he said. “More research, more awareness needs to be drawn towards it.”
Financially, Proctor has already made a huge contribution, as he’s raised over $250,000 for the Rare Disease Foundation, and intends to keep travelling across Canada to hit the million dollar mark.
Proctor also decided that since he can’t finish the run, he’d set up a creative way to keep it alive.
Runners from across Canada can donate the distance from personal runs at outrunrare.com, to contribute to Proctor’s fund.
“If you’re going to five-kilometre walk, or 20-kilometre run, you can donate those miles of helping us reach our goal.”
Proctor said it took just two hours for the amount of donated kilometres to equal the distance from Winnipeg to St. John’s.
Since then, they’ve made it back-and-forth across Canada five times.
“That is absolutely incredible. Canadians are announcing loudly that rare [disease] matters and this campaign has been working.”
Proctor is scheduled to appear in Sudbury on Thursday.
