4,000-km charity walk completed Wednesday in Winnipeg

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This article was published 18/11/2014 (3443 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The grandfather of a boy born with an incurable condition completed a 4,000 kilometre walk today, his little grandson proudly greeting him at the finish line in Winnipeg.

Bob Facca, 65, held Louie, 7, in his arms at the end of his marathon effort, which has raised $750,000 for an Ontario-based charity that raises research funds for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Louie, who has the condition, held a placard reading, “no bad days.”

The final kilometres saw the senior Facca walk into the teeth of a bitter north wind that kicked up snow squalls broken by brief sunny breaks in the weather.

Facca said he never felt the chill. He was wearing four layers of gear for the final trek into the city.

“I feel great,” he said, as he walked into the Murray Chevrolet dealership at Waverley Auto Mall, where a live Internet feed from his hometown in London, Ont. greeted him, with cheers and well wishes from scores of supporters.

“We’ve got to say, there are no bad days,” Facca said. “It could be -50 C and it’s still a good day. People ask me how I am and I tell them, ‘I’m fine. I’m healthy.’ These kids can’t say that. We’re lucky.”

Long walk began in Quebec City

Facca first put one foot in front of the other on May 12 in Quebec City, and steadily ate away at the journey, covering about 20 kilometres a day.

It’s only 2,500 kms on a direct route from Quebec City to Winnipeg, but Facca took the long way. From Quebec City, he walked to Montreal, detoured to Ottawa and headed south to Toronto, down to Windsor and up along the shoreline of Lake Huron and north to Sault Ste. Marie. From there, he made his way along the north shore of Lake Superior to Thunder Bay and across northwestern Ontario to Winnipeg.

While the grandfather made the long trip around Quebec and Ontario on foot, his son Rob — a scout for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks — worked behind the scenes with volunteers to plan a big celebration at the finish.

It turned out Rob had previously worked with Andy Murray, the cousin of the dealership’s boss Dan Murray, and so Dan Murray stepped forward to host a celebration for the finish, joined by Rob and his family, who made the trip from their home in Omaha, Neb.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic condition that strikes mostly boys, one in every 3,500 born in Canada. It causes progressive muscle weakness and is fatal; few who have it live past the age of 30.

The charity for which Facca’s walk raised funds, Jesse’s Journey, was founded by John Davidson, who raised millions of dollars for Duchenne muscular dystrophy research through fundraising walks with and for his son Jesse, who also had the illness.