Day 17: Gary Averbach at Sicamous, a resort town about halfway between Calgary and Vancouver.
At press time, Gary Averbach had reached Kamloops, completing 23 days of his walk to raise money for cancer research, which started in Calgary on June 25. Averbach is doing the fundraising walk in memory of Robert (Bob) Golden, Ronnie Onkin, Darlene Spevakow and Angelita Tica.
In a June email, he wrote, “’Some years ago, as part of my ‘bucket list,’ I decided that, in my 80th year, I was going to walk from Calgary to Vancouver. But, early in 2021, my dear cousin, business partner and lifelong friend, Robert (Bob) Golden, was diagnosed with a rare and almost always fatal bone cancer, chondrosarcoma. On the eve of his passing, on Aug. 26,, 2021, Bob asked that I do my walk in his memory, to raise funds for cancer research, especially the insidious one that was killing him.
“Of course, I couldn’t refuse. And so I changed the focus from just being a personal bucket list item to cross off my list and instead started planning Bob’s Walk for Cancer Research.
“Then, sadly <\a> in the span of a little under seven weeks <\a> starting early in April, I lost two more cousins, Ronnie Onkin and Darlene Spevakow, and a treasured housekeeper, Angelita Tica, to lung, liver and pancreatic cancer, respectively.
“Because of those tragedies, I have since decided to do this walk in memory not just of Bob, but also in memory of Ronnie, Angelita and Darlene.”
At the end of Day 23, Averbach blogged, “So the challenge facing us today and the weeks ahead is not the ‘walk’ but making sure that we achieve our goal of $500,000, hopefully before I end the walk in August but most definitely by my 80th birthday on Oct. 10. My current projections – depending on the size of the outstanding gifts – has me as high as $425,000 to as low as $385,000.”
To donate, go to bccancerfoundation.com/events/community-event/bobs-walk-for-cancer-research. All donations over $10 will receive a tax receipt from the B.C. Cancer Foundation.
To follow Averbach’s blog, visit polarsteps.com/garyaverbach.