'I decided to live my life': Man with epilepsy walking from Montreal to B.C. to raise awareness

Faith Greco · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 11, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 11

A antheral from Montreal is walking crossed Canada with a cart, a motorcycle and his work dog, Timber and he's expected to walk done Sudbury, Ont., sometime adjacent week. 

Claude Camirand acceptable disconnected from Montreal successful June to rise consciousness astir epilepsy, a information helium lives with and says is often misunderstood.

"I whitethorn look steadfast successful general, but wrong it's a mess. The world is I'm not that healthy," Camirand told CBC News from the broadside of Highway 17, adjacent Deux-Rivières, Ont. 

The 34-year-old has been travelling on the Trans-Canada Highway strategy and has truthful acold trekked 800 kilometres. 

Camirand said helium was an acrobatic circus performer successful Montreal but successful 2022 helium experienced a autumn that resulted successful a concussion, triggering seizures. He said helium had unknowingly experienced seizures since childhood, but the concussion dramatically accrued some the fig and strength of his epileptic episodes.

"I was having excessively overmuch seizures, and the doctors said, if it keeps going, they don't expect maine to unrecorded that long." Camirand said. "We were talking astir 20 to 30 seizures a week... Normally, radical don't past much than 3 oregon 4 years with that overmuch seizure due to the fact that it damages the brain."

He said radical often don't cognize however to react, either to idiosyncratic experiencing a seizure oregon the beingness of a work dog. 

Camirand walks oregon bikes with Timber, a trained seizure-alert canine who warns him erstwhile 1 could beryllium coming on. That gives him clip to prevarication down and safely distant from traffic. 

He pulls a modified kid bearer for a motorcycle filled with supplies and sleeps successful it unless idiosyncratic on the way offers him shelter. 

'I'm not successful a rush'

In June, Camirand dedicated his locomotion to the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance and present shares updates and donation links connected his nationalist Facebook page, 1 for epilepsy probe and 1 for his day-to-day expenses. 

"I decided to unrecorded my beingness nary substance what… So I'm similar I'm gonna conscionable spell connected a travel and spot however it goes," helium said. 

Despite the carnal toll and the changeless fearfulness of having different seizure, Camirand said he's determined to support going, adjacent if the travel takes him into the winter. 

"I'm not successful a rush, similar if I scope the wintertime and [for] example I'm successful Manitoba, due to the fact that it takes everlastingly to walk, that could happen," He said. "But if my wellness declines, I person to stop. I volition halt and I volition proceed erstwhile I can, due to the fact that the main interest is to enactment healthy."

But the travel is going good truthful far. Since helium started Camirand said the fig of seizures he's had has dropped. 

"I've lone had like, 3 seizures successful the past month, and usually I volition person like, implicit 30. So that's a bully sign," helium said. 

He believes the accent of municipality beingness successful Montreal was making things worse and that clip connected the roadworthy paired with a simpler regular is helping. 

"The lone accent I person is to ticker down for a car," Camirand said.