The Long walk ....

June 21st, 2012

FORT LAWRENCE — Cpl. Kate MacEachern carried a heavy load across the provincial border on Wednesday.

It wasn’t so much the 22 kilograms of kit that was weighing on the soldier’s shoulders as it was the stories she’s picked up on her way home.

Her journey began long before she started her walk from Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, near Oromocto, N.B., to her hometown of Antigonish. A walk she’s taking to raise money for the Soldier On Fund, a program that supports retired military personnel with a chronic illness or injury.

Her goal is to raise $25,000.

“When a soldier steps off that plane their journey isn’t over,” said MacEachern. “Much of the time it’s the beginning of a long way home.”

MacEachern’s own injury came during a training exercise five years ago with the Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians). Thrown from a horse into a steel pole, she had a serious spinal cord injury and bleeding around her brain.

“We thought she was gone,” said Hughie MacEachern, her father, as he walked beside his daughter into Amherst.

Eight months in and out of hospital followed .....

for the rest of the story go to

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/107404-soldier-hefts-load-on-march-for-comrades