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The story of Cycle to Walk began on the other side of the world. Ferris, 28, was born in India and grew up in Whitehorse, Yukon. He contracted polio in infancy and his birth mother gave him up for adoption when she was unable to afford to provide medical support for him. With assistive devices, Ferris was eventually able to stand and walk. After a family move to Sault Ste. Marie, he completed a degree in social work at Confederation College in Thunder Bay before returning to Whitehorse to work with at-risk youths. It wasn‘t until he visited India in 2002 and saw the orphanage at which he had briefly stayed that he truly understood how lucky he was to have received the help that he did. “The difference between my experience with polio and the experience of others that I met is that many polio survivors were still on the ground,” Ferris said Sunday, “because they hadn‘t received the braces and the crutches that I had been fortunate enough to receive.” Upon returning to Canada, he decided to dedicate himself to helping polio survivors around the world, and Cycle to Walk was created. Ferris left Victoria on April 12 – the 55th anniversary of the discovery of the polio vaccine. He has been covering roughly 400 km per day on a 27-speed arm-powered cycle. Riding for hours a day at an average of more than 20 km/h, Ferris consumes about 5,000 calories per day. He reached Thunder Bay on Saturday, 78 days into his 7,200-km trip. “I‘m very excited to be in Thunder Bay,” said Ferris. “This is my old stomping ground.” He plans to finish his journey in Cape Spear, N.L., some time in October. Current funds raised stand at $237,000, and Ferris hopes to push that to $1 million by the end of the trip. “The momentum and the excitement for Cycle to Walk is building,” he said. Contributions to Cycle to Walk can be made online at the charity‘s website. The Polio virus attacks the nervous system and causes nerve damage and muscle paralysis. Polio survivors often can‘t walk without assistive devices. A vaccine for the virus was discovered in 1955, and cases of polio have dropped by 99 per cent since then. But according to Ferris, as many as 11 per cent of Canadians are not immunized. “In Canada, people are becoming complacent toward vaccinating themselves and their children to protect them against polio because they think polio‘s a non-issue,” he said. “The reality is that as long as there‘s a single case of polio in our world, no country is polio-free.” Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 7:48 am |