Whale Cove man does cancer awareness walk to Rankin Inlet

When Leroy Sabourin’s cousin Bernice Adjuk died of cancer in Baker Lake on May 22, he knew he wanted to do something to help.

“It made me want to raise awareness for cancer and raise money for my family to go attend the funeral,” Sabourin said Wednesday in an interview.

Sabourin said his family has a history of cancer, including his mother, who died of the disease when he was two. So with the death of Adjuk, this was time to do what Sabourin long thought of — a cancer awareness walk.

He decided to take a five-day, 75-kilometre hike over melting Hudson Bay from Whale Cove to Rankin Inlet.

Not an easy task, the 29-year-old school bus driver admits.

Sabourin started on May 24, walking up to 25 kilometres a day with just a tent, a rifle and his brown dog Nella, a cane corso-lab mix, who by the end of the trip was so exhausted she had to be carried.

Eventually, one of the people who was occasionally checking in on Sabourin along the way from a snowmobile took Nella away, so that she wouldn’t slow him down.

“I kept my grandparents’ word, ‘If you are young and able and do what you want to do, you can do it,'” Sabourin said.

Soon, hundreds of people started following Sabourin’s track on social media, with his sister Michelle Sabourin-Curley posting daily updates about him.

And even though the trip was tough, especially with the signs of summer like slush and water making the route more difficult, Sabourin in his pink shirt — a symbol of cancer awareness — said he felt at peace.

“No, devices, no sounding noise — very quiet and very peaceful,” he said.

“I felt really happy. It helped me a lot being out there alone, having my time to think about all my friends and family.”

People in Rankin Inlet noticed Sabourin, a little pink dot on the horizon, at about 7 p.m. on May 28.

Hundreds of people gathered on the shore to see him finish the trek, and as soon as he stepped back on soil around 9 p.m., there were a lot of cheers and embraces, he said.

“It was such an emotional hour,” Sabourin-Curley said, adding that her brother concluded his walk just hours after his cousin’s funeral in Baker Lake.

By then, Sabourin had raised more than $5,000.

The family is keeping the fundraiser and planning to give the extra money to a cancer care facility, Sabourin-Curley said, adding they are still figuring out which one to choose.