Three members of a Peterborough family achieved their goal of walking from Peterborough to Ottawa and raising $10,000 for juvenile diabetes research.
The Cahill-Denis family participated in the Sun Life Walk to Cure Diabetes for JDRF in support of Mariloup Cahill, the youngest daughter of Peterborough business owner Rob Cahill and his wife Marie-Noelle Denis, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes almost two years ago when she was nine years old.
Team Ti-Loup — Marie-Noelle Denis, her oldest daughter Laurence Denis-Bertrand, and Laurence’s boyfriend David Patton — left Peterborough last Wednesday (June 9) on a 260-kilometre journey to Ottawa.
The three walkers walked around 30 kilometres per day, covering around 130 kilometres on foot — half of the total distance between Peterborough and Ottawa — as they encountered extreme heat, dusty roads, and many blisters.
Laurence Denis-Bertrand said the walk was harder than the team thought it would be.
“It was really long, but it was worth it for my little sister and all the children with diabetes,” she said.
The team arrived on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday, having raised more than $10,000 for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).
Their walk — coinciding with the 100-year anniversary of the Canadian discovery of insulin — received both local and national media attention.
