Walk and Roll for GBS

On Saturday May 9, 2018 I was able to participate in a Walk and Roll for GBS event. While I was in ICU, my coworker Chris said my fellow coding coordinators along with our coding specialists wanted to do something for me, similar to what we did for our coworker Bev - participated in a walk to raise money for Ovarian cancer. Natasha (coding coordinator) lead the planning of doing a walk to raise money for GBS. I was moved to tears hearing that my data collection team wanted to do this for me. It took a year of planning but Natasha worked with Kim Lange (Alberta director for the GBS/CIDP Foundation) to plan the event in my honour.

So happy the event took place in 2018 as I would have been able to attend to “roll” in the event. We had a beautiful sunny day to walk along the paved trail in North Glenmore Reservoir. It was also my first trip on Access Calgary (transit for the disabled). The trip was about 40 minutes long - luckily it was relatively a smooth ride as we are in construction season.

I arrived with my mom and there were my coworkers gathered waiting for me. It was overwhelming and I was so touched seeing everyone. Everyone who participated in the walk received a T-shirt with the Walk and Roll for GBS/CIDP logo. When we walked it was a sea of white T-shirts. I was able to meet fellow GBS survivors Dean, Kim and Holly. We all have different stories but are an encouragement for each other. At the end of the day, everyone’s generosity - the Walk raised $11,165.00 to go towards GBS/CIPD research. Amazing! Definitely rode a high in days to follow remembering this day and what my coworkers did for me because they cared. Feeling blessed for sure.




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