‘Superman’ reaches Brandon on cross-country charity trek

Look! Out on the Trans-Canada Highway! Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s Kiwi Superman, here to raise money in the fight against childhood cancer.

More than six months into a cross-country tour to raise money for Childhood Cancer Canada and the Child Cancer Foundation, New Zealand citizen Jon Nabbs ran a leg through Brandon starting early Friday morning.

After losing both his parents to cancer in the last five years, Nabbs told the Sun before setting off for the day that he first spent months hiking across the length of New Zealand’s two major islands.

“It’s about $32,000 Canadian, which is coming up on $40,000 New Zealand dollars,” Nabbs said about his fundraising totals so far. “The goal before reaching Victoria is $60,000, so we’re about two-thirds of the way to where I’d like to get to.”

Having heard of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope, Nabbs made the decision to run across Canada and raise money for cancer research as his next project. With a lot of cancer research being dedicated to forms of the disease suffered by adults, he decided to focus his efforts on childhood cancer.

“It’s really impressive how much Canada has continued what he started,” Nabbs said of Terry Fox. “It’s over $800 million raised now. I knew that there would be an understanding and empathy for what I was trying to do, what my family had gone through if I chose Canada. On top of all of that, Canada is the largest peaceful country in the world and I wanted to be challenged.”

By dressing as Superman, he’s trying to raise spirits as he visits children’s hospitals along the way.

In the beginning, he wore a Superman outfit that looks more like a Halloween costume. As time has passed and the weather has gotten colder, a generous soul he met along the way gave him a knitted Superman sweater to keep him warm.

He started off in St. John’s, N.L., in May with a goal of running a marathon a day until he reaches Victoria, B.C. Stepping off the plane in Newfoundland was the first time he’d ever visited Canada.

As he runs along the highway in costume, Nabbs pushes a baby stroller that holds his camping gear, food and clothes. Though he doesn’t have a dedicated support team, he has received assistance from people he has met along the way.

“Ordinarily, up until the last three or four weeks, I’ve just been running, finishing my miles for the day and then finding somewhere to pitch my tent in the woods and do it all again tomorrow,” he said.

“The worst weather is not just the really, really cold stuff. The worst is in that sort of -1 C to +1 C with rain so that it’s not freezing, it’s just slushy. Everything gets wet.”

He said Newfoundland proved a challenge with its strong winds and hills. By comparison, running along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec where it’s flatter and communities are much closer together was easier.

Manitoba has treated him well so far, with Hobbs saying his hosts in Winnipeg were “very lovely” and emergency services came together in Portage la Prairie to escort him through town. He said he enjoyed the very Canadian experience of going to see the Barra MacNeils perform at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium.

Helping him through Westman is Pamela Heath. She and her mother Doris were channel surfing and came across an interview that Nabbs did with Global Winnipeg.

“His persona or his character came through on his interviews,” Heath said. “This world is made up of two kinds of people, I think: givers and takers. I just wanted to help him just to give back.”

She also has a personal connection. Heath’s nephew died of cancer three years ago.

Heath said she doesn’t have any social media accounts and enlisted her friend Lisa Clouston to help make contact. Since last Sunday, she’s been providing Nabbs with a place to sleep, rides to and from the highway and food to help him keep running.

As Nabbs progresses across the country, she said she’s going to attempt to keep in contact with him and connect him with people she knows through the charity she volunteers with, Heritage Live

For those who want to help him out, Nabbs said the biggest thing people can do is donate toward his cause and share his story on social media to help get the word out.

To find out more about his cross-country trek, visit his website at jonnabbs.com and his Facebook profile at facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092188861370.

When he finally arrives in B.C., Nabbs said he’ll celebrate by taking a dip in the Pacific Ocean, “even if it’s the middle of February.”

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» X: @ColinSlark