Principal walking for a good cause
Crosses province for Huntington’s Disease awareness
A school principal from Vanguard has found a productive way to spend his summer vacation and raise awareness of a serious disease.
Greg Shwaga’s walk to raise awareness of and support for research into Huntington’s Disease will take him across Saskatchewan from the Alberta border near Macklin all the way to the Manitoba border near the Lake of the Prairies. Remembering Terry Fox’s iconic run for cancer awareness, Shwaga said he thought this was the best way to use his time.
“The idea has always been there to do something like that,” Shwaga said, from his Vanguard home south of Swift Current. “It’s a chance for me to see the province and hopefully do something for the Huntington’s Society of Canada at the same time, as well.”
Huntington’s is a genetic disease that can be passed down from parent to child. Shwaga described the disease as a progression from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s disease to ALS — a “predictable” disease without a cure, he said.
Described as a “fatal hereditary brain disorder” on the Huntington’s Society of Canada website, the disease has a 50 per cent chance of being passed on by someone who suffers from it to their children.
Recently developed genetic testing makes it possible for at-risk individuals to find out whether the disease will effect them, but only a small fraction of them actually choose to have the test — which Shwaga and others attribute to fear of what a positive result might mean.
Although Shwaga might not be personally effected by the disease, it runs in his wife’s side of the family. Just last April, Shwaga’s mother-in-law died due to to Huntington’s, and his sister-in-law has recently tested positive for the disease-causing gene.
“People who know the family know what the disease is about, but not a lot of people outside that do,” Shwaga said. “So at that point it was ‘OK, how can I use my time to bring awareness to the disease? And hopefully bring awareness so that more funding can go into research and helping families that are affected by it.”
The 46-year-old educator’s plans began to take shape last year, but he said more support has been pouring in leading up to his walk, which is scheduled to begin on Monday morning. Shwaga is working with the Huntington’s Society of Canada, and they’ve raised almost $7,000 already. And there will now be a follow vehicle driving with Shwaga during his trek, thanks to help from a local business.
As a former long-distance runner, Shwaga said he was most nervous about things he couldn’t predict, like injuries. The 676-kilometre distance doesn’t intimidate him, but he admitted it feels different now that he has some real sponsorship and more people counting on him to succeed.
“You want to be able to do well — not just because it’s a good cause, but you want to do well for people that helped you out, as well,” Shwaga said.