Russell Walker’s Cancer Fight

Hi, my name is Shannen Sinclair. My good friend Janet Osmond and I would like to put together a fundraiser for our sweet friend Russ Walker and his beautiful family. Let me share Russ’s story with you.

Russ is one of the kindest and most caring people we know. Russ met the love of his life, Maria, on Jan 11, 2002, when they worked together on the 4A2 Neurosurgery unit at the University of Alberta Hospital (UAH). Russ and Maria married on May 27th, 2005 in Banff Canada at The Rimrock Hotel, and have two great kids, Gabe and Blake, that are now 14 and 16 years old.

Russ has spent his life taking care of others. Russ is a veteran of the British Army who served 12 years as an army medic and Registered Nurse. Russ then moved to Edmonton, Alberta in Dec 2001 to work on neurosurgery at UAH. Since 2003, Russ had worked at the Edmonton Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, first in Spinal Rehabilitation, and now as the Registered Nurse Coordinator of the Intra-Thecal Baclofen Pump program in the Spasticity Clinic.

In addition to working in a helping profession, Russ is always ready to learn, grow, and help others. Russ is a motivated and capable person, who gets done whatever he puts his mind to. He is inventive, imaginative, strong, and knows a whole lot. Russ has been supporting his passion for helping others, by fundraising together with a team of friends by riding his bike for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). He has been riding with his MS Bike team "Inch by Inch" for the last 10 years. He is tough, has achieved a lot in his life, travelled to many places with the army and afterwards. He is a caring and sensitive person, who cares deeply for his family, friends, and extended family at the Glenrose Hospital. He is always there to lend a hand to others with anything is required; heck he spent a weekend a few summers ago digging a trench in my basement to help us install a sump pump after we had a flood. He is always there whenever you need him. Russ has spent his life soaking up the knowledge of the world around him and applying it to everything he does, which includes what is happening to him now. He is calmly accepting of what is going to happen because of his terminal illness and is more concerned about those who he will leave behind him when that happens. The massive gaping hole he will leave in this world is incomprehensible.

Russ was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma, grade 4, on November 21st, 2022. He presented to the emergency department with subtle right-sided weakness, and an inability to write or type. A CT scan showed a lesion. He then had three big Seizures the next day, and was then seen by the Neurosurgeon at the UAH and booked for Craniotomy on Dec 1st. Russ was able to spend a week at home with his family before the surgery. After the surgery, Russ was told that the surgeon was only able to remove 2/3 of the tumour. The tumour is a fast-growing, aggressive type of tumour, with a poor prognosis of 12-14 months. Since the surgery, Russ has sustained significant damage to his motor cortex, resulting in right-sided hemiparesis and Broker’s Dysphasia, leaving him with word-finding difficulties that he struggles with daily. Russ's speech has come such a long way since his surgery, but he still has many hurdles to overcome, including chemo and radiation therapy, which will start in early January 2023.

Russ would now like to continue to work on being the best he can be, for as long as possible, by continuing to rehab through his love of biking. He wants to ride in the Ride to Conquer Cancer (100km), the MS Ride from Leduc to Camrose in June 2023 (180 km/2 days), and also in the Glenrose Ride of Courage in the Summer of 2023. He has plans to ride in the Bike MS Tour of Champions in San Diego this coming October 2023. He is aware he may not be able to, but he needs to have these hopes and goals to ‘give back’ in some way, and continue his rehab along with charity work at the same time. He feels he needs to be fruitful if he can no longer work, and be ‘of value’ as he puts it. He would like to do this with a recumbent, dual-powered hand bike. He is thinking beyond himself about how he can help others, which he has spent his life doing.

Russ's goal of getting home requires equipment/aids to be at home, such as bathroom/safety equipment, furniture adaptations, an Ankle foot orthotic (AFO) to support his weak foot when walking, a quad cane, a wheelchair, and other requirements along the way. This equipment will enable him to spend the remainder of his life with quality and comfort at home with his family and friends.

This fundraiser will support Russ with a recumbent bike, and equipment needs.

We ask for support to enable him to fulfil these wishes that he has, along with the needs that he has to improve the quality of his life for himself and his family. Asking for help and support is not something Russ does easily, but these are not usual times. We would like to help support Russ with meeting these goals, as Russ would be the first person there to support any of his friends and loved ones if they needed it.