Follow Ramesh's Journey

What a jam-packed day here in Winnipeg. It started out with travels to Citytv for 7 am so Cycle to Walk could appear on the Breakfast Television morning show with John Ljungberg. At 10:00 am, Ari Lahdekorpi and Jackie Madden hosted a fundraising bake auction for Cycle to Walk at their RE/MAX professionals office. Cookies were eaten, donations were given, and connections to polio were shared. Thanks to everyone at RE/MAX for showing your support for Cycle to Walk. Perhaps your involvement will challenge other RE/MAX agents across Canada to show their support as well.

This afternoon, the primary hand cycle received a necessary tune up, as there have been some issues with the chain skipping. Woodcock Cycles did everything to ensure my bike was in top order. Thanks so much to Tim Woodcock and all the staff for your friendly support, fantastic service, and excitement about the campaign. It was great to meet you all!

After we picked up the hand cycle, it was time to rush over to Beaverlodge School and provide over 200 excited students an opportunity to learn about Cycle to Walk and polio. A big thanks to Principal Brenda Lanoway and Alisha and Ed Mann for arranging this school visit, and to all the students for expressing interest in the Purple Pinkie fundraising project. CTV news came to the school to cover our presentation too, which was great! I really enjoyed it when students came up to me outside as the team was leaving to express how they enjoyed the talk on polio. It means so much to me when I hear that young people understand the important message of Cycle to Walk.

This evening, Post Polio Network Manitoba held its annual BBQ, and we were invited to join them for the evening. To our surprise, Sylvia Kuzyk of CTV News was live on location to cover us as part of the 6 o’clock news! Prior to the live interview, Sylvia explained to me that she saw the coverage at Beaverlodge School and was so inspired that she wanted to come and meet the Cycle to Walk team. Everyone at the Post Polio Network Manitoba BBQ was so excited to have Sylvia around, and she mingled with the crowd once she’d finished in front of the camera.

I was truly honoured to meet so many people and hear so many personal stories about how polio has touched the lives of so many tonight at the BBQ. Because of the polio vaccine, our reality is different from that of the past with people living in fear of polio every time someone had a flu in their home or in the neighbourhood. I heard stories of people who watched their friends or family walking around one day and then get sick or die the next. There were stories of people traveling on airplanes and getting the flu, only to find out it was polio and that they would never have use of their legs again. It sickens me to know that people around the world continue to live life in fear exactly how Canadians lived in fear in the 1950s. We’ve had better than a cure - we’ve had a prevention - for over 53 years now. It’s not acceptable that 11 per cent of Canada’s population is not vaccinated against polio. Approximately 3.4 million Canadians are currently at risk of contracting the disease.

Post Polio Network Manitoba President Charlene Craig, thank you so much for the invitation tonight. The team had a wonderful time meeting everyone. Thanks also to everyone who gave donations and bought t-shirts. Your continued support is very important to us. Art Braid gave me some tremendous words of encouragement as he recalled his days working as the provincial chair for the Rick Hansen Man in Motion campaign, and saw that I had the same drive and determination as Rick Hansen. Art, it was a great honour to be compared to one of my role models like that - particularly by someone who worked so closely with him.

Our jam-packed day ended with a nice ice cream treat at the Bridge Drive-In, where the team took some time to recap the days’ events while looking down on the Red River. What a great way to finish the day!