During ALS awareness month, Quebec man prepares cross-country wheelchair trek

Yannik Richard will travel across five provinces this fall to raise money and awareness for ALS.

June is “ALS Awareness Month,” and there is still no cure for the disease. A Quebec father who’s been diagnosed with it is planning a cross-country journey in his motorized wheelchair to raise money and awareness.

Yannik Richard of Prevost in the Laurentians is a family man whose life plans changed drastically 2 years ago. He says, “I saw a neurologist, they transfered me to a neurologist... I was diagnosed with ALS.”

Richard knows time is tight for ALS patients and wants to make the most of it. He’s preparing to ride his motorized wheelchair across five provinces this fall. He says, “I will ride 45 hundred km, starting from B.C. and coming to the end in Prevost.”

A team of friends is already mapping the route and gathering sponsorships for the 35-day journey. Marie-Andrée Tremblay is the project manager for “Team Yannik,” which they are calling La Grande Traversée.

Tremblay says collecting resources has been going well. “We have the RV from A.S. Levesque, we have the wheelchair, a motorized wheelchair. We have some money to pay the gas, and we are waiting for the airplane ticket now.”

Claudine Cook, executive director of ALS Quebec, says this ride will help the 3,000 families in Canada touched by this disease.

“Because it’s a fatal disease for every diagnosis, there’s unfortunately someone who passes in a given year. So that’s why you never see the numbers grow. So in Quebec, there’s an estimated 600 people currently living with ALS with about 200 diagnosed and 200 people who pass every year.”

Those ice-bucket challenges from years ago helped raise research money, yet Richard says he wants to help fund a better future for people with ALS by collecting donations along the ride.

“A message of hope for a generation to come. So we fight today for the orders for tomorrow. I want to teach my children that despite that, this life is beautiful and not unfair,” says Richard, who will be leaving B.C. on Sept. 22 and rolling east, expecting to arrive in Prevost in late October.

Richard promises daily updates on his social media along the way.