Traveller brings message to island

A man with a message is walking around the Maritimes this summer, towing a cart decked with flags and exchanging inspiration with all he meets. In late June Mikael Champagne reached Grand Manan.
His journey began with major health problems. Since 2006 persistent blood clots have baffled his doctors; then in 2013 they discovered he had bowel cancer. In an urgent surgery, over five feet of colon was removed. Other complications followed; he's had nine surgeries in all. There was a point where he wanted to give up. However, there was also the glimmer of an idea in his mind, and he began thinking about this walk. He is now in remission, but the blood clots remain. Removing or tying off veins would require a long convalescence. He'd "had enough" and said "no." His doctor recommended exercise. "I'm too much of an adventurer" to go to the gym every day "and do the same things with the same people." Looking at his abdominal exerciser, he "saw a buggy in it" and began tinkering. With the addition of wheels and tentpole handles, he now has a 215‑pound cart on which everything he needs must fit. As soon as his remission was confirmed, he planned his departure. "It was the best decision my whole life," he says. "Cancer saved my life."
On April 27, Champagne left Saint‑André‑Avellin, Quebec, heading east and then south through New Brunswick. "If my body and health permit," he intends to walk all the way around Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, back to northern New Brunswick, then Prince Edward Island and home via the Gaspé Peninsula, thus traversing the perimeters of each province. He's not sure he will finish his journey before next spring.
He arrived at Blacks Harbour on June 21. After several phone calls, he was allowed to sleep in the ferry terminal that evening. He camped the next night on the deck of an islander who had seen him on the highway the day before. The following day, he walked in pouring rain to the village office, where he got an official letter documenting his arrival on the island. By lunch time, word was beginning to spread. On his way to the White Head ferry, someone in a passing truck stopped and gave him some warm dry clothes and someone else offered him a pair of fishermen's sleeves to keep his arms dry. Unaware he was expected, he was surprised by a White Header's joking approach, "You're late." The man put him up for the evening, and in spite of a power outage caused by the rainstorm, they had a fire and he was able to rest. After an introduction to dulsing and a tour around the island, he returned to Grand Manan, and "it was crazy. Why does everyone know me?" Islanders on social media had been talking about his journey, and he found everyone waving, honking and saying hello. So much food was offered that he had to start turning it down, unable to eat or carry more. His room at the motel was paid for. Island hospitality was "a notch above" what he'd already encountered. "I was overwhelmed. I guess I'm doing something right."
Champagne isn't collecting money or promoting a particular charity. Instead, if people are inspired by what he's doing, he asks that they donate to "anything charismatic to help kids" in the name of Miguel Love, his Facebook identity. Having visited sick children in hospitals, he was struck by their will to live. In contrast, he can't understand how "a guy who has it all" can be "running after death" pursuing alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. He wishes parents would talk to their children more about drugs and about taking care of themselves, suggesting he might have lived differently if this had happened in his youth.
"I've been so mean to my person without considering the value of life. I wish others would consider this precious thing," he says, adding that he no longer has any desire for destructive activities. "I'm so lucky now. I know the value of my life. It took me death to realize how important life is. Just to wake up tomorrow morning is a good thing." He turned 50 along the way, but maintains he's "19‑25 at heart. I'm a child inside. A child with a lot of experience."
"So many people are sad," he observes, describing how "they'll take a minute to cry with me" as they share their own stories. Although he's single and without children C which he blames on his former partying lifestyle C he's been accumulating "family" along the way.
Asked if he ever gets discouraged or thinks about quitting, he admits, "I've cried." Sleeping outside in fields and behind gas stations, being cold and wet, enduring blisters and fatigue can leave him drained and in need of a real bed and some time to refresh. He admits he didn't think about how hard the physical effort might be. "How could I have possibly known how much work it was to walk? I carry my life, my pain, my anger, my joy, everything... in 4'6" of buggy." But he says he's never felt threatened along the way. "The people [I meet] are the ones keeping me going." To occupy his mind along the road, he sings, whistles, waves to everyone and imitates the funny looks he gets. The journey has been a rebirth, and he says he's getting stronger every day.
Champagne's message is about being positive and appreciating life. "Each person is so special and so needed," he sums up. "[When] you need someone, you need that person [to be] in good shape, mentally, emotionally. Everyone has a key to something for someone else. If they're gone, that person will be lost for a long time. The key is within you. It's very simple."
As to what's next, while he has a few ideas, nothing is certain. More than one person has suggested he consider motivational speaking for youth. He may revisit some of the places he's been. For now, the journey is day by day, with a wealth of observation about humanity to be gathered along the way.