A Shuswap, B.C., man has committed to walking 140 km through the backcountry all alone.
Dan Meakes told Global News his solo trek is symbolic of the cause for which he’s raising awareness and money.
“For probably six days I won’t speak to a soul. And that’s the experience of many people who are living alone,” Meakes said.
“They may be in an apartment or trailer, but they’re alone.”
Meakes will start the long trek on Tuesday in the Larson’s Hill area of the Coquihalla Valley and make his way to the Okanagan.
He’s hoping to raise $6,000 to help the Shuswap Hospice Society launch a companion support program to combat loneliness among men.
“There seems to be an increasing number of men who just isolate and we don’t know whether it’s because of life in cyberspace or whether it’s because of post-pandemic result, we’re not really sure,” he said.
The Shuswap Hospice Society wants to expand the programs already in place for people experiencing loneliness who are not necessarily in a facility setting.
“We have companion programs for lonely people that are in facilities and don’t have any families around to visit them on a regular basis,” said executive director Cookie Langenfeld.
“But through COVID, we’re discovering that there’s more and more men suffering from loneliness, and they don’t seem to have an outlet as to where to address that from.”
Langenfeld said part of the reason the society is targeting men is because men are less likely than women to step forward to seek help and/or companionship.
“We’re trying to change that level of comfort for them and to know that this is a really safe place to come to and talk,” Langenfeld said.
The Shuswap Hospice Society is a not-for-profit volunteer organization that has been providing compassionate emotional support to the dying and bereaved in the region since 1986.
In addition, the community-based hospice offers a number of programs to support residents who are struggling.
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“We want to ensure that people have the quality of life from the beginning of their journey, whatever that journey is in their health,” Langenfeld said.
“And so mental health is also becoming a problem for people and it’s became quite evident again through COVID and so that’s an area we want to help people feel stronger.”
Langenfeld said the society needs at least $5,000 to get the program off the ground and hopefully start to offer it as early as this September.
“If we can create a group of men together that will be the ideal and then it gives them a place where they can all talk to each other, support each other. But if not, then we will work individually with them as well.”
While Meakes said he himself doesn’t struggle with loneliness, he knows a number of people who do and wants to bring it to the forefront.
“It’s one of the sleeping things in our communities that we never get around to,” he said. “And I think that many of the people who are lonely, the very nature of the challenge for that person is the silence and so we need to break the silence and reconnect.”
For more information you can go to the the Shuswap Hospice Society website.
Donations to the cause can be made by Etransfer to admin@shuswaphospice.ca or by cheque made out to the Shuswap Hospice Society.
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