One decision can travel farther than any one walk.

She said goodbye to Kath and Ted early that morning. She had packed up most of her backpack the day before, and they had helped her get her laundry done, so everything was clean, packed and close to being ready to go. When she got up, she was able to get on her way pretty quickly.

Kath did a marvellous thing: she contacted friends of hers who live south along Jeana’s route toward Royal Oak and Victoria, to see whether anyone could help her out along the way. Kath also shared some very special chocolates with pistachio cream for her journey, and Ted some of the pears he had dried from his pear trees.

The walk along Lochside Drive was amazing: the permeating smell of the forest, mixed with the sea air, was intoxicating. She was falling in love with the Canadian people. Every day, she says, she meets kindness emanating from a new face.

She met Cyrus on the trail between Saanichton and Royal Oak. He read her sign as he flew by her on his bike, then quickly turned around and asked her what it was all about. After she explained, he shared that he was near the end of his treatments for lymphoma.

He appeared to her to be a giant on his bike: so tall, so strong and courageous. They both agreed that they were praying for the treatments to be his cure, so that there would be no need for him to find a matching stem cell donor. Meeting Cyrus gave her buoyancy throughout the day.

She stopped in at Mattick’s Farm, a series of shops and eating establishments, for a short rest. If you are looking to meet someone, she says, go to Mattick’s Farm. She met so many people there who were interested in the Steps to Marrow walk, and they all took a picture of the QR code around her neck. One woman took the time to share her story of moving to Vancouver Island from Ottawa many years ago, and of how happy she has been there.

She ran into an Amazon delivery guy, and she loved his response to the walk. He simply said, “I approve.” Toward the end of her route, a woman running by turned around to find out why she was walking. The runner shared her admiration for Jeana’s decision to walk to save lives, and began running again.

It wasn’t long before the runner turned and asked whether Jeana had a place to stay for the night. As she carried on with her run, she explained, she had remembered backpacking in Scotland with her mother, when so many Scottish people had invited them into their homes. She felt moved to return the favour and invite Jeana to stay in her home. Her name was Alex, and she and her husband, Jeremy, were outstanding hosts.

She got quite a bit of rest that afternoon, and was able to catch up on some work for planning bone marrow drives in Olympia once the walk is over. She also connected with Ann from the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry about a stem cell swabbing event she was due to attend on Monday, October 5, at Camosun College with Isla, the president of the Lifeline Club on campus.

That evening Alex prepared the most amazing dish with fresh tomatoes and basil from her garden, and saganaki, a delicious Greek fried cheese. Jeana felt very fortunate that night.

She was able to do her walk to Saanichton that day, as well as her Bone Marrow Awareness Day in Sidney. She visited the office of the current MP, Elizabeth May. Unfortunately, the office was moving, so she wasn’t able to meet her, but she had all the contact information she needed.

Then she was able to see folks at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and they gave her the name of their communications director, so that he could help get the word out to cadets and officers between the ages of 17 and 35 who can join the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry.

She also stopped by the fire department, but no one answered the buzzer; she thought they must have been out on a call. She went to the community centre as well, so it was quite a day of crisscrossing Sidney, and a beautiful walk without her great big pack, because Kath and Ted kept it for the day.

Several places offered her food throughout the day. Sapodilla’s Smoothies & Juice Cafe gave her a wonderful breakfast protein bowl with fruit and granola, Sidney’s Scones gave her a delicious raisin scone for a quick snack, and the Corner Thai Restaurant provided her with a late lunch from its buffet.

She was up early, packing and getting ready to leave Mary’s. Nigel, her friend from the trail and the library, had arranged to come and pick her up at Mary’s house. He would keep her big pack, so that she could walk the miles to the ferry with just her little day pack, and then he would drive it to the ferry parking lot and meet her there.

It meant more than she could say that Mary had given her a safe place to sleep for the last two nights, and a place to heal her cough. She still had a cough, but it was significantly better, not so deeply ingrained down in her lungs. She owed Mary a lot for her care, for her teas and her soups, and for the warm bed to sleep in. What a beautiful gift to help her along her way.

She made it to the ferry without incident, after a lovely walk out the long causeway to the terminal. Nigel met her there with a gift of a candy bar, a very small New Testament and her great big backpack. It had been so wonderful to meet Nigel several times while she was in Tsawwassen, and he was really generous in making sure she got to the ferry and in bringing her big pack to her.

She bought her ticket and got in line to board the ferry as a passenger. As she was hurriedly packing her things from her little pack into her big pack, a young woman named Mia stopped to help her gather them up, so that she wouldn’t leave anything behind. Jeana motioned to the folks in line to go on ahead, but Mia kindly stayed until everything was safely packed away.

The ferry ride was filled with meetings and activity, and it seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. She met a lovely family seated behind her and let them know she was planning to be on a monthly interfaith Zoom call; they said it wouldn’t bother them. It was an uplifting meeting, with lots of support for the walk from her fellows. When she had finished, the grandmother of the family came to talk with her about the Steps to Marrow walk, and when she heard that Jeana would be walking through Saanichton, she said Jeana must come and stay with her.

Her host family for Sidney, Kath and Ted, got in touch before the ferry docked and made arrangements for where to meet once she had walked into Sidney. Her sister Ramona lived in Sidney as a missionary for her church more than 24 years ago, and as Jeana walked from the ferry, she imagined her sister’s life there on the beautiful island.

As she got closer to Sidney, she began running into cyclists and walkers on the pathway along the highway, and she decided to sit down on a bench. A woman was already sitting there, resting for a moment. She looked at Jeana and asked what she was doing. Jeana explained, and the woman asked how old she was. When Jeana told her 73, she said, “Oh, you’re still so young.”

They had a lovely visit. Her name was Lucy, and she turned out to be 91. She walks every morning, but she had some time that afternoon and had decided to go out for a second walk. She is a lovely human being, and what a blessing it was to meet her on the road.

That day was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a national holiday in Canada. For her it is such a meaningful day of remembrance: of the wrongdoing done by the colonisers to the First Nations of Canada, particularly surrounding the schools that were developed, in essence, to kill the language and the culture of the First Nations, and of the many children who were kidnapped from their families.

She remembered, too, that it isn’t only in Canada that these atrocities occurred, that the United States participated, and that it also happened to the Sámi people in Norway and Finland. It is a day, she feels, to remember together those who were killed, harmed and traumatised in an attempt to assimilate the Indigenous peoples. That day she celebrated the beautiful language and culture of the First Nations in Canada, and atoned for repressive and suppressive behaviours she had committed toward herself and others.

Because of the holiday, the place where she had planned to meet Kath was closed. Kath was due at 5:30 p.m., and Jeana arrived early, so she stopped at a McDonald’s to charge her phone. While it charged, she met Lorraine, who had just turned 85 and still goes kayaking: another amazing woman, born and raised on the island.

When it was time to go and meet Kath at a restaurant called Fish on Fifth, Lorraine offered to walk her there. That was lovely, and the two of them walked several blocks together. As they went along, a young woman was walking behind them, and Jeana turned to let her pass. The young woman stopped to say that she would like to take a picture of the QR code around Jeana’s neck, so that she could join the Canadian Blood Services registry.

Kath very kindly bought her dinner, and then they went back to Kath’s home, where Jeana met Ted. They were able to visit before she went to bed, and once again she slept comfortably, warm and safe.

It had rained all night long, and she was so grateful not to have spent the night in her tent. She began the morning over coffee and breakfast with Mary, who carefully wrote down instructions for riding the bus so that Jeana wouldn’t get lost.

She was able to leave her pack at Mary’s house. It was still raining when she set out, but she was well prepared for it, with her waterproof shoes, her rain gear and an umbrella provided by Mary. She took the bus to Delta City Hall.

The visit to Delta City Hall was rather anticlimactic. She was not able to meet with any of the Delta council members or anyone from the mayor’s office. She did meet a welcoming young woman at the reception desk, who took her information and promised to pass it on. When she got back to Mary’s she followed up by phone and was asked to wait for a return call. She did hope her request would land in the right hands.

She rested for most of the afternoon. Rest — what a marvellous gift.

She had a lot to share that day. She used every minute she could before the motel’s 11 a.m. checkout calling around for places to stay for her two additional nights in Tsawwassen. She was also contacted by a friend of her sister Mona’s about possible lodging and support once she reached Sidney, on Vancouver Island.

The motel let her carry on calling from its office. She had left messages with the Tsawwassen First Nation’s health services department, and she received a call back from a wonderful woman named Serena. Serena understood right away the importance of increasing the enrolment of First Nations people on the Canadian Blood Services registry. Jeana was able to give Serena the details of Eric, her contact at Canadian Blood Services, and Serena shared hers in return. Serena suggested that Canadian Blood Services could come and give a presentation. Jeana was so pleased with the warm reception and the swift move to action.

She started making her way to Delta Fire Station 2, to talk about how to join the Canadian Blood Services registry. On the way she stopped at the Wood N Frog Coffee Company. She had not had any breakfast, and it was already after noon. They gave her a delicious bowl of soup and a cup of coffee.

She received a warm welcome at the fire station, and they promised to spread the word all around about how important, and how easy, it is to join the Canadian Blood Services registry. It was starting to rain, so they directed her to the Tsawwassen Library, for shelter and a place where she could carry on with her work.

At the library she left messages with the Rotary Club of Tsawwassen and with churches in town about her need for a place to stay. She did not trust her tent for the night, with the rain expected to continue.

To her surprise, she heard someone call out her name. It was Nigel, whom she had met the day before on the Boundary Bay Dyke Trail. They talked for quite a while about the fifth Steps to Marrow walk and her stay in Tsawwassen. Nigel suggested she call the Tsawwassen Alliance Church. She did, and the people there said they would call her back if they were able to find a place for her to sleep. Then Nigel took her to Tim Hortons and bought her lunch, and she was so grateful to have nourishment for her body.

As she was finishing her meal, she received a call from Reverend Marie of the Tsawwassen United Church. Reverend Marie had got her message about needing housing and had called some of the members of her congregation. One of them, Mary, had offered Jeana a place to stay out of the rain. Reverend Marie was very thoughtful and emphasised the importance of taking care of folks in need, and Jeana thanked her for her kindness.

Mary picked her up at the Tsawwassen Library at 6 p.m. and made a lovely pasta for dinner. They chatted, and by 8 p.m. Jeana was climbing into a dry, warm bed with a grateful heart.

Jeana has sent her new route. Because she was still unwell, the stop at Vancouver General Hospital and the Vancouver Awareness Day were canceled, and with them the other planned stops around Vancouver, from North Delta and Burnaby to New Westminster. She did go to Vancouver: on September 25 she helped at a Canadian Blood Services stem cell drive at the University of British Columbia. The walk turns toward Tsawwassen and the coast instead.

On Sunday, September 27, Day 21, she started on Ladner Trunk Road in Delta and ended the day in Tsawwassen, in the traditional territory of the Tsawwassen First Nation. Monday, September 28 and Tuesday, September 29 were planned as Bone Marrow Awareness Days in Tsawwassen: days spent in one place, recruiting marrow donors in the Tsawwassen First Nation community and talking about how to join the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry.

Why that matters: Canadian Blood Services explains that patients are more likely to find a match in a donor of similar ancestry, and that its registry needs many more donors of Indigenous ancestry.

Tuesday was left flexible, in case she took the ferry that day instead. She stayed on the mainland that day, and kept the ferry for Wednesday.

On Wednesday, September 30 she took the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay and walked to Sidney. Thursday, October 1 was planned as an Awareness Day in Sidney, and Friday, October 2 as the walk from Sidney to Saanichton; she did both on the Thursday. Saturday, October 3 is planned as the walk from Saanichton to Royal Oak.

On Sunday, October 4 she walks from Royal Oak into Victoria, and from there the walk is back on its original schedule: an Awareness Day in Victoria on October 5, the ferry to Port Angeles on October 6, and the finish in Olympia on October 21.

This photo is from September 23, the day she walked over the border at the Peace Arch and into British Columbia.

The day began at sunrise on Ladner Trunk Road in Delta, folding up her tent and packing up the pack. Then she headed just across the street to the Tim Hortons that had helped her the evening before. They helped her again that morning with some breakfast, and she was able to brush her teeth and comb her hair using their facilities. Most satisfying, she was able to get warm. It was pretty cold in the night; she was warm in her sleeping bag, but packing everything up she got pretty cold.

For most of the day’s walk she was on the Boundary Bay Dyke Trail, walking all the way into Tsawwassen. It was a magnificent day to be out, and it seemed like everyone was on the trail: people walking, running, biking, flying kites and riding horses, just enjoying the warmth of a beautiful day. Most of them were focused on whatever they were doing, so there wasn’t a lot of time to share with people. But on the latter part of the trail she ran into people who were lingering, and she could talk about the walk and how to join the Canadian Blood Services registry.

One group of kite flyers was very generous. They brought over two bottles of water, though she only needed one, and one of them shared a Kashi bar. She was so grateful for the nourishment. Then one of the men reached into his bag, said he knew what she needed, and came out with a small bottle of hand sanitiser, which she was running out of.

She began looking for places to stay on her phone. Because it was a Sunday she tried calling churches, but either they were in church or the call came too late and they were closed for the day, so she wasn’t able to reach any of the local churches.

Her cold was lingering, but much better. She walked to the Beach Grove Motel, where they said she had got their last available room. The Foundation covered it.

Getting her laundry done turned into quite a kerfuffle. She did not have any Canadian currency, and when she asked about doing laundry, the young woman at the motel said she would need $4.00 in Canadian quarters. She had a handful of change she had picked up along the road, and four U.S. one-dollar bills. The young woman sent her to a café around the corner, saying they could help her change the U.S. dollars into quarters so she could do her laundry.

At the café, the young woman behind the counter had trouble helping her, because they couldn’t change one-dollar bills into Canadian 25-cent pieces. She could take the U.S. coins, she said, but not the bills. So Jeana was counting out her change, about $1.30, and was still short of what she needed for the laundry. Then a gentleman who thought she was trying to buy something to eat came up behind her and offered to buy her lunch, and she accepted his kind offer. Then another young woman behind the counter brought her four Canadian 25-cent pieces. So she had $2.00 in Canadian coins, and lunch.

She went to the table where the gentleman and his wife were sitting, shared what she is doing, and thanked him for his kindness. He had seen that she was in distress trying to pay for something, and out of that he offered to feed her. She will remember his face: the man with the beautiful smile.

Having eaten, with her two dollars of Canadian coins in hand, she returned to her room, washed her clothes by hand and got them into the dryer. She still had work to do: she took her tent apart to dry overnight, because it had still been wet when she packed it up that morning. After a very long day it was finally time to rest, and she was very grateful to have a warm bed to sleep in that night.

Jeana is unwell, so the planned stop outside Vancouver General Hospital is canceled. With her sick, going ahead with a visit tied to an oncology ward would be a terrible choice—unsafe and inappropriate around medically vulnerable patients. Vancouver Coastal Health asks people who feel unwell not to visit a hospital or care site, and BC Cancer Vancouver asks visitors with cold or flu symptoms to stay home.

The earlier Vancouver Awareness Day would not proceed as scheduled, and no replacement public event had been confirmed that day.

She is changing course toward Tsawwassen. Exact stops, dates and public meeting details were still being confirmed that day; the new route followed on September 27.

This photo shows Jeana at the Peace Arch on September 23. Until the new route was ready, the website showed the walk only as far as Elgin, in Surrey.

She thought she might take the day off to rest after being in the rain the day before. But it was a good walking day, and rain was coming in the next couple of days, so she thought she had better take advantage of the sun while it lasted.

The McDonald’s down the street from the Motel 6, on her way to the route, generously provided her breakfast. She had time that morning to take care of quite a bit of Jada Bascom Foundation business, and it was good to catch up.

On the walk she ran into a lot of people who honked, waved from their cars, or stopped to talk to her after recognising her from the TV news. That made her happy, knowing that many people saw the news clip about the importance of joining the Canadian Blood Services registry. One woman, Pram, ran across the street to greet her and offered her a protein bar, which was really good, because she had no food in her pack. People kept honking as they went by on British Columbia Highway 10.

She found a place on an empty lot where she thought she could tuck her tent in for the night. At a Tim Hortons they fed her a delicious cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee for her dinner, and she sat catching up on her new route again and looking at how things might unfold. Carrying the pack was much better that day. That night she slept in her tent.

It was quite a day. She got up early to be ready for Eric to pick her up at 8:45 and go to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, to help with a bone marrow drive. Her cold was improving every day, and she felt safe keeping a social distance from people, especially since the drive would be outside.

Eric came prepared with all the equipment and supplies the drive needed. They joined a team from UBC’s Centre for Blood Research for a combined blood donor sign-up and stem cell swabbing day.

The rain was really coming down in Vancouver, but no one complained. They just got to work setting up the tent and all the supplies. She put on her rain gear and joined everyone else.

She was happy to learn that two news organisations from the Vancouver area were there to cover the story: CTV Vancouver and CityNews Vancouver. The reporters, Jim and Joe respectively, were both thorough, professional and kind, and made the interviews comfortable and easy. Eric told her he had been trying for a long time to get the news media to come out and cover Canadian Blood Services’ stem cell enrolment, and he was very happy that the fifth Steps to Marrow walk drew the attention that brought the information to people in Vancouver and the surrounding areas.

Eric took her to a pharmacy and bought cold medicine, Band-Aids and the other supplies she needed to carry on with her walk. Then he bought her a marvellous masala paneer bowl for lunch. Now, he said, he was part of the vast web of supporters helping her along her way and saving lives.

Finally came the work of swabbing people to join the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry. Eric was a pro at inviting people to join and taking them through the process; the swabbing was Canadian Blood Services’ work, and Jeana was there to help and to talk with people. She would check the final enrolment count with Eric the next day. People she talked to who were not ready to join but wanted to learn more took pictures of the QR code around her neck, which takes them to jadabascomfoundation.org. There they can read about stem cell donation and be directed to their national registry, which in Canada is Canadian Blood Services.

It was a long day, made more challenging by the rain, with many heavy downpours. Because she was still not well, she talked to Eric about not going to Vancouver General Hospital. It is really important not to go when you are sick, even a little bit sick, because the patients are immune-suppressed, and you don’t want to make anyone very sick because you weren’t paying attention. So she decided to change her route.

Eric felt that they had done the work they needed to do together in Vancouver, particularly in getting the media to spread the word to so many people all over the area. She mentioned trying to reach the Tsawwassen First Nation community, near the ferry she would take, and he felt that because First Nations people have such low representation on the national registry in Canada, it would be a really wonderful opportunity to increase the diversity of the Canadian Blood Services registry.

She did not know what the outcome would be (there is always the opportunity of not knowing), but that was her direction. She would walk toward Tsawwassen the next day. It would take her two days, maybe two and a half, and then she wanted to spend an extra day there, so she was busy adjusting her schedule and her route. The Foundation covered her room that night, at the Motel 6 in Surrey.

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.

This was the day she walked over the border into Canada. Two days of rest behind her, and the cold not quite gone, she decided she could manage a short walk up to Elgin, in South Surrey, British Columbia.

At the crossing they asked a great many questions, making sure she was really doing what she said she was doing: walking to encourage people to join a stem cell and bone marrow donor registry — in Canada, the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry. They looked at the Foundation’s website, and then they understood her intention and her purpose.

It was a short day, just under five miles with the pack, and she found a Best Western to rest in. Her muscles were still achy and she was not back to full strength, so she wanted to be gentle with her body.

After checking in she rested, and then took some of the next day off the front of it. Eleven miles were planned, so she walked three up the route and three back without the backpack, which would help her immensely in the morning.

She talked to several people along the way and explained that her purpose is to encourage people to become potential donors, and how they can join through Canadian Blood Services. The tag round her neck does the work: people photograph the QR code, and it takes them to a link on the Jada Bascom Foundation website to join the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry.

People have been generous. She walked into a pizza shop and asked whether she could sit at a table for a moment after using the restroom. The proprietor nodded, and then asked whether she would like a piece of pizza. She happily accepted. It was delicious.