The working flat on the south bank

Tilbury is the flat working ground on the south bank of the Fraser, and the City of Delta says plainly that the industrial lands at Tilbury and Annacis Island are two of the largest industrial areas in Metro Vancouver. That makes it the exception in its own municipality. Delta covers 180 square kilometres, is bordered by the Fraser River on the north, the United States border and Boundary Bay on the south, Surrey on the east and the Strait of Georgia on the west, was granted incorporation in 1879, and more than half its land is still agricultural. Tilbury is where the farmland stops and the warehouses start.

There is nothing to see here in the usual sense. Day 23 is 9.8 miles of warehouse frontage, yard gates, loading docks and road shoulder, on ground that barely rises. The route goes through Tilbury because this is the way south toward the ferry, and because a walk that only passed through scenic places would be telling a different story than the one this walk is about.

The people here are at work. Canadian Blood Services takes stem cell registrants between the ages of 17 and 35 who are in good general health and willing to be a donor to any patient in need. Registering does not cost anyone a shift. You answer the questions online, a cheek swab kit arrives in the mail within one to three weeks, you swab the inside of your cheeks and send it back, and the sample is HLA typed before your tissue type joins the registry.

The foundation does not do any of that. It does not operate a registry, run the typing, mail the kits, or decide who is eligible - Canadian Blood Services does, on this side of the border. What the foundation does is tell people the registry exists and where to find the right one for their country. On Day 23 that is Canadian Blood Services.