A High River man took a break from visiting his toddler son at the Alberta Children’s Hospital to make sure to get some exercise in Okotoks. There was no way Jordie Mifflin was going to miss the Foothills Outrun Rare Fun Run on Saturday. “My son Deklyn is fighting pompe disease,” the 28-year-old Mifflin said. “Pompe is extremely rare. As a dad, it’s rough, but you manage. I have probably spent more than a hundred nights at the children’s hospital with him. “I have been up there all week — a lot of stints in an out of the hospital.” Pompe disease causes muscle weakness and trouble breathing. It mostly affects the liver, heart, and muscles. Mifflin admitted before his son was born, he had not heard of the Rare Disease Foundation. When he heard of Saturday’s run, which was capping off Okotokian Dave Proctor’s attempt to run across Canada to raise funds for the foundation, he and about 10 friends and family members, participated in the 5K run, walk or stroll. There were approximately 75 people who participated in the quickly organized run. Proctor began his cross-country run on June 27 in Victoria in an attempt to run across Canada in 66 days to break the record established by Al Howie. Proctor had to stop in late July just east of Winnipeg due to a painful and potentially debilitating back injury. He was running for his nine-year-old Sam who has RECA, a disease, which affects his balance and mobility. He told the runners on Saturday, the record-breaking attempt was the secondary goal. Goal no. 1 was accomplished. “More importantly was to raise loads of money, create loads of awareness and advocacy work for kids with rare disease all across this country,” Proctor said. After having to stop his run, Proctor made a plea for Canadians to donate the kilometres they ran to outrun rare, in an effort to create the mileage to get to St. John’s NFLD. “Canadians stepped up and we got enough donations to go across Canada 7.7 times,” Proctor said. “And because of that, the message is clear — Canadians now understand and care more about rare disease.” At present, close to $300,000 has been raised through the Outrun Rare efforts. He credited Foothills MP John Barlow — who ran the fun run and ironically, coached Mifflin in hockey when he was a youngster — for bringing awareness about rare disease to Ottawa. Proctor’s return to Okotoks wasn’t the only reason for celebration on Saturday. It was Sharon Proctor’s — Dave’s wife — 40th birthday. She has been with Dave every step of the trip since he announced the cross-country attempt nearly a year to the day of Saturday’s fun run. “This is great, being home and I am used to running events on my birthday — Lethbridge Lost Soul [ultramarathon] falls on my birthday,” Sharon said. “Dave still finds a way to wine and dine me.” She said it was agonizing to watch her life-partner run in pain during the trek across the Rockies and the prairies. “It was an emotional roller-coaster,” she said. “I wanted to support him and how badly he wanted to keep going to get across Canada. My heart broke for him. “He came to me and said ‘tell me what to do because I am going to keep going that’s me that’s my drive.’ “I asked are all the red flags the doctors told you are they coming up? He said yeah. I told him it is time for you to stop. “He needed to hear me, his brother Dan say it… For me it was a relief because it was hard to see, he was in so much pain.” He said the efforts of Canadian runners and friends in Okotoks and area helped ease her husband’s pain. “Today is great, fabulous,” she said. “There are a lot of friends and family and people that I don’t even know.” Anyone wishing to further contribute to Out Run Rare can go to outrunrare.com
