MADAWASKA – Twenty-one-year-old Andrew Metcalfe, a former student of Ryerson University in Toronto, began his 1,200 kilometre trek from Kingston to Windsor on June 3 to raise money and awareness for cancer.
His pink canoe is not hard to miss, which bears messages of support on his shoulders, as he portages his way through cities and towns along the way.
The Gazette caught up with Metcalfe at Spectacle Lake Lodge on June 16, where Sharon Mahussier, who is the owner of the lodge, provided him with a room for the night, free of charge.
Metcalfe shared that cancer has been in his family for quite a while. Both his mother, Leona, and his grandmother are survivors of breast cancer. Unfortunately, an aunt of his was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer and within nine months, it claimed her life. That was in 2005.
He reflected on how supportive the Canadian Cancer Society was to his family when his mother was going through her breast cancer diagnosis in Toronto.
“I’m at the age that I kinda want to give back now,” he said. “Looking back on it now I appreciate what they did because a cancer diagnosis doesn’t just affect the person that gets it. It affects an entire family.”
Story continues in the June 20, issue of The Valley Gazette.