Day 18 · Completed
Surrey
King George Boulevard, Surrey, British Columbia (approximate)
Through Surrey, and lovely greetings without a word spoken
This day on the route
- Date
- The day
- Walking
- Walked
- 6.8 miles
Day 18, September 24: 6.8 miles walked through Surrey. Where the walking ended is not recorded; the stop is shown at King George Boulevard, where she spent the night. Day 19, September 25, she spent at a stem cell drive at UBC and has no stop of its own.
Route overview, not turn-by-turn directions.
On September 24 Jeana walked 6.8 miles through Surrey and spent the night at the Bonanza Motel on King George Boulevard. Her journal does not say exactly where the day’s walking ended, so this stop is approximate.
After breakfast at the Best Western, she needed a ride back out along the miles she had walked the day before. She walked on through Surrey, where people she passed greeted her warmly, often without a word spoken.
For the last five nights the Foundation had covered a motel while she shook off her cold, and she began looking for a reasonably priced one. That meant walking more than two miles back to King George Boulevard, where Eric helped her find the Bonanza Motel.
The next day, September 25, she spent at the University of British Columbia, helping Canadian Blood Services with a stem cell drive in the pouring rain.
From the road
Through Surrey, and lovely greetings without a word spoken
After breakfast at the Best Western, her task was to find a ride out along the six miles she had walked the day before. It was actually a little more than six miles, because it was 9.8 kilometres.
It didn’t take her long to notice a car wash just two doors down. She spoke to people vacuuming out their cars after the wash to see whether she could get a ride, and a lovely gentleman who is an Uber driver offered her a lift. She offered to pay him, because it was his job. He declined, and on top of that gave her a $5 donation for the Jada Bascom Foundation. He dropped her a little over a mile short of her destination, but that was okay: she would use that mileage the day after next.
Walking her seven miles through Surrey, she realised she was in a large Sikh community. Her contact at Canadian Blood Services, Eric, told her that Sikhs are actually the largest donor group nationally for Canadian Blood Services, and that they make over 4,000 blood donations a year.
Her greetings to passers-by were returned with a small, subtle wave, prayer hands, a nod of the head or a gentle smile. Several older gentlemen who spoke just a little English took a picture of the QR code hanging around her neck, to learn more about why she is walking.
She was in touch with Eric on and off all day as they made arrangements for her to attend a stem cell donor drive in Vancouver the next day. It began to rain in the afternoon, as the weatherman had predicted. She stopped in at an A&W, where the supervisor on shift kindly brought her a cheeseburger without the meat and a small root beer.
As she ate and charged her phone, she began looking for somewhere to rest for the night. She relies on the generosity of others for her food and her housing, but for the last five nights she had relied on the Jada Bascom Foundation to provide a motel while she was healing from a cold or flu. She needs to keep her body healthy if she wants to walk every mile.
She began looking for a reasonably priced motel, and that’s when she realised she would have to walk over two miles back to King George Boulevard to find one. Eric was very helpful in locating the Bonanza Motel, in Surrey, and the Foundation covered her room there. She walked back over miles she had already walked to have a safe place to rest and carry on healing. In all she walked 3.6 extra miles that day, on top of the 6.8.
I had lots of lovely interactions without a word being spoken.
- Distance walked
- 6.8 miles
Choose where you live
Continue to the official registry that serves you. It decides eligibility, handles registration and contacts you if you may match a patient.
Where in Canada?
Canada outside Québec — Canadian Blood Services
The Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry asks for people aged 17 to 35 in good general health. You answer eligibility questions online, complete a profile and sign a consent form; a cheek-swab kit arrives in the mail within one to three weeks for you to swab and return. If you live in Québec, you register with Héma-Québec instead. Canadian Blood Services makes the final eligibility decision.
Check the listed age range
Browse all official registry options
Eligibility rules can change. Confirm the current requirements with the official registry before joining.
Give to the Jada Bascom Foundation
Choose a symbolic amount or enter your own in Givebutter. Your donation supports JBF’s work wherever it is needed most.
Sponsoring a mile, a day or a stop is a way of describing a gift to the Jada Bascom Foundation. It does not purchase anything on the route.
$100.00 is a suggested amount. Confirm or change it in Givebutter.
Sources
Local history and background reading for this stop.
- Grandma’s mission to register bone marrow donors (CTV News Vancouver) — checked Sep 28, 2026
- Grandma walks continents to save lives after granddaughter’s leukemia battle (CityNews Vancouver) — checked Sep 28, 2026
