Skip to content

PoCo woman to walk to Stanley Park for the disabled

One of Eve Fedyk's earliest memories is feeling ashamed.
eve
JANIS CLEUGH/THE TRI-CITY NEWS Port Coquitlam resident Eve Fedyk will walk for 15 hours next Saturday — from Robert Hope Park to Stanley Park and back — to raise awareness about people with disabilities.

One of Eve Fedyk's earliest memories is feeling ashamed.

It was the early '80s when a girl on the same Surrey bus she was riding stared at her legs in disbelief.

Fedyk matched her glare, silently challenging the young passenger to confront her fears and perceptions of the disabled.

Because of a breech birth, Fedyk was born with bones in her legs that twisted out from her hips. The condition required her to wear braces until she was about five to straighten them.

But it wasn't the only disorder that compounded her movement.

After she turned one, Fedyk was diagnosed with a low form of cerebral palsy that affected her co-ordination, muscles and brain. Then, doctors told her family she would be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life; they also said she wouldn't live past 25.

Today, the preschool teacher and mother walks about three hours of day to "fire up her neurological wiring" — as she puts it — and to ease her symptoms.

Next Saturday, she will bring attention to others with disabilities by walking from Robert Hope Park, close to her home in Port Coquitlam, to Stanley Park in Vancouver and back.

It's a journey she expects will take about 15 hours.

"I'm not doing it for me," she told The Tri-City News today (Friday) from the Citadel Heights park. "I'm doing it for all the people who have suffered and are in constant pain. We have what we have and we shouldn't be ashamed of it."

Fedyk said the aim of her walk is for people to understand her story and find strength to move forward in life.

Recently, she was encouraged by a mentor to open up about her ailments. "There are a lot of people out there who don't get it," she said. "They judge others without knowing their background and that's not fair."

Besides awareness building her walk has other meanings, too.

She's paying tribute to her mother — who, as a child, attended Mary Hill elementary, beside Robert Hope Park, and is now retired and living in Lake Cowichan — for giving her care throughout the years.

She's also using the walk to end her 38th year as her birthday is on Aug. 13. "I thought I would end it with a bang," she smiled.

Meanwhile, Fedyk is asking anyone who wants to be part of her crusade to meet her at the rocks at the Robert Hope Park playground at 6 a.m. on Aug. 12.

Participants are also welcome to join her en route: Fedyk will be checking in every hour on her Facebook page to add her location.

Fedyk said she's not fundraising for charity; however, anyone wanting to collect funds for their own causes on her walk are permitted.

"This is something I was told I would never be able to do and I want to prove I can," Fedyk said. "I am just as able."

jcleugh@tricitynews.com