LOCKPORT: Walking the walk for hospice

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By Joe Olenick

September 15, 2009

By Joe Olenick The Niagara Gazette Tue Sep 15, 2009, 12:03 AM EDT

Colin Skinner is going the distance to promote hospice care around the world.

To do that, Skinner is taking a 5,000-mile journey from New York City to Minot, N.D., for the first half of the trip, then continuing to San Francisco for the second half. He plans to hit some well-known landmarks such as Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Rockies before finishing the walk in March 2011. While walking the entire journey on foot, Skinner will also be lugging a 40-pound backpack and braving the elements.

But for Skinner, a 43-year-old resident of Deal, England, the walk is for a good cause. On Monday, he stopped by Niagara Hospice on Sunset Drive to visit the facility and meet the patients.

“Hospice homes are there to help, but they also need help,” Skinner said.

In August, Skinner began this trip, which is his fifth long-distance walk to help raise money and awareness for hospice care. He has also taken long walks across New Zealand, Scotland and England. This time around, Skinner started his quest Aug. 22 in New York City, keeping in contact with Niagara Hospice about a visit. Skinner visits a number of hospices while on his walks. He also has written a book, “Beyond the Setting Sun,” about his travels.

Skinner went on a similar 5,000-mile walk in 1988, when Niagara Hospice was just beginning. He met with Pat Evans, one of the founders of Niagara Hospice, which had one patient at the time. Niagara Hospice marketing director Patricia Degan said today, there are more than 160 patients on Niagara Hospice’s daily census. Evans was also present Monday at hospice for Skinner’s visit.

“I was happy to catch up,” Evans said. “What he is doing is amazing.”

Skinner was happy to see how Niagara Hospice has grown, as well as some other differences from his first U.S. walk 21 years ago. Back in 1988 when he arrived in New York City, the temperature was 105 degrees. Skinner passed out from heat exhaustion on a bridge. Along the route, he came across freezing temperatures of about 30 degrees below zero in Utah. Skinner was a little discouraged at the time, but managed to persevere until the morning.

While he is alone for some of his walking, Skinner said he does meet a lot of people on his journey. Unlike in 1988, when hospice care was still new, more people have told Skinner stories about how hospice has made a difference in the lives of their loves ones. Skinner can relate. He said he was inspired after seeing what his mother went through as she died from pancreatic cancer in 2003. She didn’t live in a hospice house, but he wished she had better quality of life.

Skinner told a story of a man named Ralph who came to a hospice home in San Francisco years ago. Ralph had nothing, but the staff gave him a birthday party, which made Ralph very happy. There also was an 80-year-old man who tried on Skinner’s backpack at another hospice home. The man put on the backpack and was also very happy that he could do it, despite concerns from the staff whether he could support the weight.

“He had a big smile,” Skinner said. “Seeing what they do, that’s what keeps me walking the journey.”

SKINNER’S JOURNEY

• WHAT: A long distance walk from New York City to North Dakota to promote hospice awareness

• WHERE: Skinner started in New York City and will walk to the Niagara Falls, the Midwest, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, the Rockies and stopping in North Dakota before eventually ending in San Francisco

• FOLLOW HIM: Skinner has a blog documenting his journey at www.nationalhospicefoundation.org/colin

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