Tri’ing to End ALS – One Stroke, Pedal, and Step at a Time

Donna Bartel and Mike Pearson want to end ALS so much, they are willing to travel a great distance to do it.

How far?

Well, 750 metres while swimming, 20 kilometres on a bicycle, plus running for another five kilometres over the course of a couple hours in punishing summer heat.

Oh, and they’re going to do this a total of 17 times during a four–month span that will take them 24,000 kilometres across Canada.

If that sounds ambitious, welcome to the world of Donna and Mike, a Vernon, B.C., couple who are ready to climb into their pick-up truck, hook up an RV, and embark on Tri’ing to End ALS.

“It’ll be a scary, exciting, powerful journey,” says Donna, who lost her mother Marilyn Walters to ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). “Hopefully we’ll see and meet lots of people and have a good impact with the ALS community.”

Tri’ing to End ALS will see Donna and Mike compete in 17 triathlons across all 10 Canadian provinces, plus the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, between May and September 2025. The first race is May 11 in Nanaimo, where the city has proclaimed that date as Tri’ing to End ALS Day.

Donna and Mike’s fundraising goal is $600,000, with 50% of the net funds raised in each province/territory going towards that region’s ALS society, and the remaining 50% going to ALS BC PROJECT HOPE at the University of British Columbia.

Donna has raised money for the ALS Society of BC before. She, along with her sister, held Run, Walk and Roll for ALS events for eight years, and she has also competed in Ironman Canada triathlons twice as a fundraiser for ALS. She does it because she’s seen first-hand what people go through following an ALS diagnosis.

Donna still remembers back in 1999 when she noticed her mom had started tripping a lot because she could no longer lift up her foot. She was also suddenly losing a lot of weight.

“Those were two things that were very weird,” says Donna, adding that her mother was also having trouble swallowing.

“When I meet someone who doesn’t know about ALS, I tell them that those voluntary muscles that let you walk, or run, or hug and smile, and laugh and talk and breathe, just progressively die and become paralyzed. Life expectancy is two to five years.”

As soon as her mom was diagnosed, Donna and her family reached out to the ALS Society of BC.

“They were amazing,” says Donna. “They have equipment, support groups, they know who to send you to in order to help you.”

That help, of course, costs money and that is why Donna and Mike are so focused on raising funds.

“Our main focus is to improve patient services for the people who have ALS,” Donna says. “You need a ton of equipment. We also want to give hope by providing funds for research and clinical trials.”

The ALS Society of BC helps people with such equipment as walkers and wheelchairs, plus speaking and breathing machines. Donna is also proud of the ALS Society of BC for its PROJECT HOPE, which has been established at UBC under the leadership of Dr. Erik Pioro.

ALS BC PROJECT HOPE has established a clinical care team that consists of a registered nurse, physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologist, dietician, and social worker. They offer a sanctuary of care tailored to each person.

ALS BC PROJECT HOPE is also a vital research centre for ALS, where Dr. Pioro and his clinical research team expect to implement groundbreaking clinical trials in the immediate future – something that has not existed in British Columbia for decades.

In the years she’s been raising money to end ALS, Donna has met a lot of people. She says one surprising part of her many conversations is just how many people she’s met actually know what ALS is, and know someone who has been impacted by it.

One of those people came as a complete accident. Donna was watching Mike compete in a triathlon in Oliver, B.C., in 2024. She was wearing a Tri’ing to End ALS shirt.

“This fellow runs up to me and asked who I was ‘tri’ing’ for,” Donna says.

It turns out the man’s dad had been diagnosed with ALS two weeks before and had no idea where to turn at that point. Donna connected him with the ALS Society of BC and the two have stayed in touch. The man is now raising funds to donate to Donna and Mike’s journey.

“It was incredibly powerful because if I hadn’t been wearing the shirt, he wouldn’t have come up to me,” she says. “Hopefully we made someone’s life better because of this journey.”

When Donna and Mike have bad days as they train and organize this incredible undertaking, they think of that memory and it keeps them going.

It’s easy to support Donna and Mike’s journey through their website – www.triingtoendals.ca – that includes all information about their journey, including race schedule, how to commit to a sponsorship, and a donation portal through an ALS Society of BC third-party events page.