Local RMT hiking 500 miles of Pacific Crest Trail in support of Operation Smile

To celebrate 20 years of being a massage therapist, Cheryl Standing, owner of Relief Massage Therapy, is taking a sabbatical to hike a 500-mile portion of the 2,560-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which extends from the California/Mexico border to the Washington/British Columbia border.

She’s doing it both for the challenge and to raise funds for Operation Smile, a charity that provides surgery for children born with cleft lip and cleft palate. It’s a cause close to her heart.

Cleft lip and cleft palate result when facial structures that are developing in an unborn baby don’t close completely.

“As a cleft lip and cleft palate baby myself, I am forever grateful to have been born in Canada, where health care access is not an issue, and I want to give back,” she wrote in an email to friends, family, and clients. “One day I hope to be on site and see these kids in person, but that’s another dream (one dream at a time).”

Standing is more than half-way to her goal of raising $5,000, which will give 20 children this life-changing surgery, at just $240 per child.

“A lot of these babies that are born that have cleft lip and palate in developing countries, they’re malnourished because they can’t get their milk into their system because it all just comes out the nasal passage. So feeding is a real struggle, and oftentimes when there is an opportunity to have a surgery, these babies are so malnourished they would not survive the surgery,” explains Standing. “So they have to teach the moms how to feed them. And then, if they don’t get the surgery right away, their whole development is changed. They’re outcasts with their families, they don’t go to school, they hide their faces. If they don’t have surgeries until adulthood, they won’t get married. These are otherwise healthy human beings that just have a facial deformity. It’s only a 45-minute surgical procedure, and that’s the kicker: It’s fixable, they just need the resources.”

With the help of medical volunteers, Operation Smile works in 60 countries around the world to provide the surgery for free.

Standing will be leaving on March 26 for San Diego and will begin the 500-mile trek through the desert section of the trail on March 28. She expects it will take her two months to complete her journey, at about 15 miles or 24 kilometres per day.

If she is unable to complete the full 500 miles, Standing plans to be a ‘trail angel’—one of the people who support other hikers on their journeys by providing ‘trail magic’ in the form of food, drinks, or rides.

She was inspired to do a long-distance hike by the movie Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon, which is based on the true-story book of the same name by Cheryl Strayed.

“I was going through some of the same things. Separation from my husband, my mom had just passed away, and so I connected to the character on that level first,” says Standing.

Although she’s always enjoyed hiking, Standing didn’t know that there are long-distance trails that take many months to complete. A five-day guided hike in the Grand Canyon whetted her appetite for more. She did some hikes in Algonquin Park, and began researching online.

“I like that the Pacific Crest Trail is in terrain that I’ve never seen before, specifically the section that I’m doing which is all the desert section,” she says. “So I’ll see the cactuses, I’ll be enduring the heat and then the cold at night, and it’s vast. Here, all we see is trees. There it’s all open and a desolate type of environment, which is something that I’m looking forward to seeing.”

Although she has a fitness background, Standing hired a coach to help her train as well as prepare for the mental strain of a long-distance hike and the nutrition required. She walked to work with her pack, and also carried it up and down the stairs at the Summit Centre, over and over. Over the past few weeks she’s been spending time in a sauna to prepare for the heat, “just sitting there trying to be hot and uncomfortable,” says Standing.

She has prepared boxes of food that she’ll take with her on the plane and then mail to herself, general delivery, to towns along her planned route. It’s both a cost-saving measure and one that allows her to regulate exactly how much weight she’ll be carrying.

She’s been documenting her preparation on YouTube and plans to continue posting updates throughout her hike.

Follow Standing’s Pacific Crest journey on YouTube at Cheryl Hikes or on Instagram @cheryl_hikes.

You can donate to Operation Smile here.

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