Edmonton man finds renewed purpose while planning walk for Stollery Children’s Hospital

An Edmonton man’s goal of walking from Jasper National Park to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in support of the hospital this past August was put on hold after Dale Stratichuk fractured his ankle.

But the accident coupled with the hospitalization of his son, Emmett, has made the endeavor even more meaningful.

Stratichuk began training for his Steps for the Stollery campaign at the beginning of 2022.

“We had Emmett, who was born in 2020, and just figured that one day there could be a time where the Stollery could be needed, and they are a great place and always looking for extra support and we thought it would be a good place to promote and do the walk for,” he says.

dale training for Stollery walk

Just four weeks before the walk was set to begin in August 2022, Stratichuk fractured his ankle, putting the whole campaign on hold.

“A lot of sadness, a lot of anger, hurt. It was the biggest focus that I had and it was just very important to give back to the community,” are the emotions Stratichuk felt.

Stratichuk never gave up on his dream, and wanted to begin training again as soon as his ankle healed, but just a few months later his whole world flipped upside down when his son Emmett was admitted into the Stollery Children’s Hospital after having a seizure.

“After multiple weeks, they were unable to pinpoint exactly what was happening and they were continuing to get worse, more frequent, more severe. And eventually, his lung collapsed at one point, he was on ECMO which is a form of life support, and they managed to save his life,” he says.

pre-surgery

“They did find an abnormality on his brain, and after a whole bunch of extensive tests they were able to safely say that abnormality was causing his seizures, and it was just yesterday he went for his brain surgery and it was successful, so he will be coming home here in a few weeks.”

Stratichuk says he never gave up on Steps for the Stollery, but says the journey is even more meaningful now. “It was getting done either way, there is definitely a lot more meaning behind it now. Even if I have to drag myself the last few kilometers with my arms, I will be finishing and it will be straight from the heart, every step,” he says.

“Being here [at the Stollery] for as long as we have been, we definitely see it from a different perspective. And don’t get me wrong, every step I will be thinking of Emmett, but there’s going to be a lot of other children and nurses I will be walking for.”

Dale, Nicole and Emmett post-surgery

Emmett underwent brain surgery on January 18th, and is now on the road to recovery. “It was the first time we were able to cry happy tears in a lot of months. We spent the last 3 or 4 months off of pure hope.”

With renewed purpose for the walk, Dale along with his wife Nicole, and their friend Justin plan to complete the walk in August 2023. The goal is to walk from the Jasper Gate RV Park to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton with a goal of raising $10,000 to support the Stollery.

Anyone wanting to follow along with Stratichuk’s progress leading up to the trip can do so here.

Dale and Nicole training for Stollery walk