Button knew that exercise would
help keep him as healthy as possible.
He started walking five kilometres a
day. Before his diagnosis, he’d meet
with business contacts and friends at
coffee shops. Now he asks them to
join him on a walk. Every day over the
last three years that his health has
allowed, Button has gone for a walk,
all the while expanding the range of
his walking partners—he regularly
strolls with strangers who reach out to
him seeking business advice, or peo-
ple recently diagnosed with cancer
and other illnesses.
“I’ve discovered that not a lot of peo-
ple go for walks,” Button says. “And
when they do, it opens up their mind
to be a bit more honest about whatever
challenge they would like to talk about.”
On some walks, he says, conversation
never slows. On others, little is said but
much is shared, even silently.
Inspired by Button’s strolls, Dr. Lisa
Bélanger—founder of Knight’s Cabin,
a Canadian charity for cancer survi-
vors and their supporters—helped
found an initiative in Calgary called
Walk It Out. The program is like other
peer support groups, but participantswalk outside while they share their
experiences with the disease. “More
than in a sit-down, face-to-face meet-
ing, walking seems to allow a conver-
sation to flow naturally,” she says.
Bélanger, who is an expert in
behavioural medicine, adds that walk-
ing has the power to undo negative
thought patterns. “If you’re thinking
about a problem and you go for a walk,
the activity in your brain changes, and
you learn and think better,” she says.
Like Button, New Brunswick’s Nancy
Duguay has corralled her community
around her daily walks. The more she
walked, the more people around her
saw the benefits and started doing it,
too. Her husband, Roger, began to
accompany her on hikes on their hol-
idays. And about seven years after
Duguay’s first walk up Sugarloaf
Mountain, her sister decided to try it.
Now she, too, takes a walk every day,
and they often go together. A small
community of walkers has formed
around them.
“We’ll meet people coming down
and say, ‘This was a tough one today.
It was really slippery, but boy, you
know, it’s worth it.’”Easter Fun
I rise from the dead every morning; no one looks for eggs.
@ZACHBRAFFIf Jesus was a cat we’d have nine Easters.
@ONLINE_SHAWNreader’s digest
54 april 2020