Émilie receives bone marrow from an anonymous donor in 2002 at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
This month, she returned to see Doctor Mitchell at the Montreal’s Children to celebrate five years since her bone marrow transplant.
Émilie Van Winden was diagnosed with leukemia in 1999. A seven year battle ensues: multiple chemos, in 2002 her cancer comes […]
It was very cold that last morning. This is what the valley with the yurts looks liked in 260 degrees.
The final “ceremony” where each got to share a word they picked.
This morning was our last in Yukon. After our breakfast, the Uncommon Journeys staff and the On the Tip of the Toes Foundation group got together for a special “ceremony”. A tradition the Foundation has kept on its previous 16 expeditions in over a […]
On the 8th of March, I asked the dozen young men and women from the expedition to present themselves. Here they are in French and English for souvenir’s sake.
Their names (not in order of video presentation):
Anthony (MontrĂ©al), Maryo-Alexandre (MontrĂ©al), Delson (Laurentides), Émilie (Ottawa), Paul (MontrĂ©al), Camille (St-RĂ©dempteur), Keven (St-Marc-des-Carrières), Marika (St-Basile), Dominic (Belcourt-Abitibi), Hilary (Monction), […]
Just what we needed to finalize our trip: escape the lodge only to find comfortable installations called yurts. Uncommon Journeys, the company that leads us here, has built a nice camp of four of these Mongolian houses. Yet, no one goes there. An entire valley is all for us!
Indeed, four hours of sledding in Yukon’s […]
Dominic from Abitibi (Québec) and Anthony from Montreal both celebrated their birthdays with us yesterday. The former turns 22, the latter 17.
Cheese cake was served in a yurt in the middle of nowhere. I ate three pieces myself: two for desert, one for breakfast.
Racing in snow shoes.
The six sled team, followed by eight snowmobiles, totalling 21 humans and 48 dogs decided yesterday to cut the expedition short. After one of us got a little sick, the team decided to turn around and head back. Not surprisingly, everyone is happy with returning to Uncommon Journeys’ comfy lodge. It surely […]
1st day of expedition so there is a lot of preparation and organisation for the winter camping that we will do the next 4 days. It was a short dog sledding day til we got to our first campment where we had to settle the dogs on trees, feed them, get the stock out, […]
Dominic from Abitibi with Paul (in sled) from Montreal enjoyed their first day.
Rod gave us the lowdown tonight. Tomorrow we will start of our five days expedition that will bring us over 100 km north of here. At destination, we will be picked up and driven back.
Two big heated tents will house the girls […]
Hilary from Moncton with doggy from Yukon.
Today we got to do the real thing: mushing. Firsts are always exciting, and this was definitely a new experience for everyone. Six sleds pulled by a total of 48 dogs got 12 of our team members across the Yukon’s rugged landscape. It took two hours to complete a […]
As we arrive, we stare out the plane’s window to see beautiful mountains.
No more than two hours after our arrival we were getting our first taste of “mushing” in minus 30 degrees. The group, now all dressed in ridiculously huge winter gear, listened attentively to our teacher and leader, Rod, over a barking choir of […]
This is the Foundation’s 17th expedition in over 10 years. And the first to have real time updates for the parents and public. Four of us will publish short stories on a day to day basis: Émilie and Bertrand of the Montreal Children’s Hospital site (look for the banner, bottom left) and Louise MĂ©nard […]
Photo from Yukon Quest, which ends this week in Whitehorse. See more in the Yukon Quest Pool in Flickr.
On the third of March, a dozen teenagers will take off to Whitehorse in Yukon. A week expedition on dog sleds is planned for these who are in cancer remission. It will be the Foundation’s 17th […]
Here are the fine adults that will be part of the trip.
Left to right:
Martin, docteur - Montréal
Héléna, coordonnatrice de projets - Chicoutimi
Annick, directrice générale - Montréal-Chicoutimi
Kim, photo/blog - Montréal
Bertrand, psychoéducateur - Montréal
Louise aka Loulou*, conseil d’administration - Montréal
Preparation meeting with some of the team members at Montreal’s Children Hospital last February 9th.
Gauche Ă droite - Left to right:
Anthony - Montréal
Maryo-Alexandre - Montréal
Alexandre (will not come)
Delson - Montréal
Émilie - Montréal
Paul - Montréal
Camille - Québec
Kevin (QuĂ©bec), Marika (MontrĂ©al), Dominic (MontrĂ©al), Hilary (Nouveau-Brunswick), Kaitlin (Nouvelle-Écosse) et Serge (Pembrooke) are not present in the […]