Shawn and Melanie Cote, a married couple from River John, N.S., have finished a 35-day walk of roughly 700 kilometres across Prince Edward Island, undertaken to raise money and awareness for lymphoma — a disease Melanie is currently being treated for. According to PNI Atlantic News, the couple completed the trek in late October, documenting it on a Facebook page called Two Survivors Walking 700 kilometres for Lymphoma, which had drawn more than 1,200 followers by the time the walk ended.
The couple told PNI Atlantic News they hitchhiked along the route rather than walking every stretch. They had never attempted anything comparable before; asked whether they had done something similar in the past, Shawn laughed and said the answer was no, "not even close."
Why it matters
Lymphoma receives less public attention than some other cancers, and the Cotes said that gap was part of their motivation. Shawn told PNI Atlantic News that breast and prostate cancer get considerable coverage while lymphoma is discussed far less, and that the walk was an attempt to draw more eyes to it.
The effort also carried a personal dimension. Melanie was receiving treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma during the walk — a condition she had also faced in her late teens. Days before the couple travelled to P.E.I., she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The couple had originally planned to walk the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route in Spain, but could not make the trip because Melanie's platelet counts were falling.
"We don't try and understand it," Melanie told PNI Atlantic News. "We're just trying to be positive and make a difference."
Chance encounters on the road
Shawn described a pair of early rides that he interpreted as more than chance. On the first day, a woman who picked up Melanie had a family member who had dealt with lymphoma directly; the following day, the person who gave Shawn a lift had lost her husband to leukemia after an 18-year fight, two years earlier.
"It's not a coincidence," Shawn said, according to PNI Atlantic News.
Beyond fundraising and visibility, the couple said they hoped their walk would encourage other people living with the same illness. Shawn reported that his legs held up well, though one foot was sore, and that the couple were sleeping well as the journey wound down.
He also said messages had arrived from supporters far beyond the Maritimes, including British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland, and that the volume of outreach had surprised him.
PNI Atlantic News reported the walk from Three Rivers, P.E.I. The couple's Facebook page remains online, and it is not yet clear from the reporting how much money the walk raised or where those funds are directed.
