Local woman runs to advocate for positive mental health
By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Jessi Chayer
The Strathmore resident ran 102 kilometres (km) from Strathmore to Drumheller on Aug. 9 to raise funds and awareness for the Centre for Suicide Prevention (CSP) in Calgary. CSP is a suicide awareness group that runs seminars and workshops for community members and those who deal in higher risk areas surrounding mental health with a higher potential suicide risk.
The journey took Chayer 16 hours with breaks and 13.5 hours in actual running time.
Chayer started her run on Aug. 9 at the corner of Hillview Estates as her friend Tobey Kai sang her off at 5 a.m. to an original song written especially for her titled Running.
She headed north on Highway 817 before turning east on Highway 564, north on Highway 21 to the correction line to continue following Highway 564 east before meeting up with Highway 56 and following that north down the hill into Rosedale. Her final stop was at the Drumheller Fire Department at 9 p.m. in honour of a fallen firefighter and friend.
“I’ve always been a big advocate of mental health to begin with simply because I battle it and I know a lot of people in my life and loved ones who do; I’ve even lost a few friends myself to suicide,” said Chayer, noting that her husband’s close colleague, Captain Barry Dawson with the Calgary Fire Department, lost his life to suicide in November 2017.
Chayer, along with raising funds for CSP, was running for Dawson in hopes of sparking a light on the stigma of mental health and awareness that suicide risks can pose a threat to anyone, even seemingly strong people.
“I would really like people to remember Barry and I would like people to actually see what the Centre for Suicide Prevention has to offer,” she said. “They offer a more advanced and updated education on what mental health and suicide is, because I think people are looking often in the wrong places.”
Chayer set a goal to raise $1,000 for CSP, but as word got out, her total quickly doubled to closer to $2,000 in donations.
This is not the first ultra-marathon for the avid runner and mother of five children. Last year on her birthday, she ran an 80-km run with her friend, also to raise funds for CSP.
Although she had many offers from friends to accompany her on her journey, Chayer chose to run alone, as this year’s trip marked a personal battle and feat of mental health – at the beginning of the year, she was unsure if she would be able to complete an ultra-marathon this year.
Following the loss of several family members in 2018, at the end of this past January, Chayer received a diagnosis of breast cancer and by mid-February, she underwent a double mastectomy.
“It really threw my year off as well so I was concerned if I was even going to be able to tackle it on my own; but it just seemed better for me to do it and make it on my own,” said Chayer, who added that awareness for mental health needs to be more prominent and that everyone needs a little help sometimes.
She plans on running again next year on Aug. 9 and hopes to add an extra 21 km to her run to increase the distance to a total of 123 km, and to increase more awareness and raise more funds for CSP.