JOHN DAVIDSON
MY STORY
I was two-years-old when I arrived in Canada from Scotland. After World War II, my parents knew Canada held the promise of a brighter future for a young family.
Early in my public-school years in Brantford, Ontario I liked clipping stories from the newspaper and sharing them with my classmates during what was called “current events.” At nighttime when I was supposed to be asleep, I loved putting on a bulky set of headphones and listening to my old short-wave radio. I could hear voices that came in crystal clear through the night air from Rome, Paris, Moscow and Berlin.
It’s probably not a surprise that I eventually found my way into radio where I enjoyed a 30-year career in broadcasting, first in my hometown of Woodstock, Ontario (CKOX) before moving on to CFPL Radio in London. From there it was on to CBC Radio and Television in Vancouver before returning to London and CFPL Television.
At the same time, like lots of other families, my wife Sherene and I were busy raising three little boys. We were very happy and everything was going great—until it wasn’t.
That’s when my second career, the one I hadn’t planned on, began to unfold. In 1995 I went from being a news reporter to a newsmaker.
After learning that Jesse, our middle son, faced a life-threatening illness for which there is no cure—I faced the toughest decision of my life. I did what I had to do. I set out to make a difference.
I chose to leave behind the security of my job and the comfort of home as I took on an incredibly challenging 3300-kilometre journey, as I pushed my son Jesse across Ontario in his wheelchair in an adventure that Canadians quickly named Jesse’s Journey.
Together we spent 124 days on the road in a blistering hot summer crossing Ontario. But that was to be just the beginning of the story.
Three years later, I ramped up my efforts to keep my promise to my son, to do everything I can to find a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disease for which there is no cure.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects young boys almost exclusively. It causes a long gradual weakening of muscles. Most young boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy require a wheelchair either before or just about the time they are becoming teenagers. Eventually the heart muscle is compromised. Few live into a third decade of life.
This is what I want to see changed.
And so, at the age of 52, I was ready to take the next steps in my fund-raising quest.
I set out to walk across Canada, the second biggest country in the world!