MONCTON — Jamie McDonald doesn’t know what to expect when he runs into town. “If I see a house I’ll go over and knock on the door and see if I can camp on their lawn,” McDonald said.
McDonald started running from Saint John’s about two months ago in an effort to be the first person to run across Canada without a support team.
He’s doing the solo run to raise money for a children’s hospital in his hometown of Gloucester, England, where he spent time as a child with a rare spinal condition.
“I spent most of my years in a hospital. So its my way of giving back to the hospital,” McDonald said.
“I’m hoping to be the first person to do it without a support crew,” he said. “I want to show people, you know, you don’t have to be a super athlete or a really good runner or actually anything like that. You can do anything you want to do if you just put your mind to it.”
On Thursday he arrived in Moncton and started to set up camp when he got neighbourly offer.
“I set up my tent and people came out and said ‘here do you want a sofa,’ you know that meant the world to me,” he said.
When Moncton woman Mary Stiles heard his story, she said the least they could do was give him a place stay.
“Its pretty extensive with what he’s doing running across Canada. He’s doing it all on his own too, like like no support or anything, so anything we can do to help is definitely important for him,” Stiles said.
MacDonald is trying to make to Vancouver by mid December and says its the people that keep him motivated.
“I’m sure there’ll be more experiences and people there that will keep me going.”
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