The crossing that isn't counted

This is not a day spent entirely on foot. BC Ferries runs the crossing between its Tsawwassen terminal, at 1 Ferry Causeway in Delta, and Swartz Bay, and it carries foot passengers. The 8.5 miles credited to Day 25 are walked on land: on the mainland side, and then from Swartz Bay down the peninsula on the island side. Sitting on a ferry is not walking, and the tally says so.

Swartz Bay is not quite Sidney. BC Ferries gives the terminal's address as 11300 Patricia Bay Highway, Sidney, but it sits a few kilometres up the Saanich Peninsula from the town itself. Sidney, when the walk reaches it, describes itself as a community along the shores of the Salish Sea on the Saanich Peninsula, with a population of 12,318. This is the first day of the route on the island side of that water.

A crossing is a fair thing to think about here, because the transplant that caused this foundation to exist was one. Jada Bascom was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at one month old and no one in her family matched her; the person who did was Torsten Huber, in Germany. Searches cross borders as a matter of routine. The World Marrow Donor Association's Search and Match Service manages an inventory of over 42 million donors available for transplantation.

If you are in British Columbia and want to be on that list, the registry is Canadian Blood Services': 17 to 35, in good general health, willing to be a donor to any patient in need. You register online, a cheek swab kit reaches you by mail in one to three weeks, and you send it back for HLA typing. The foundation does not run that registry, do that typing, or send that kit. It tells you the registry is there.