Myles Dininio, a 40-year-old father from Zephyr, Ont., finished a cross-country run in Vancouver on Aug. 22 to raise mental health awareness and funds for CAMH.
The Story
For 148 days, 40-year-old Myles Dininio ran nearly 8,000 kilometres across Canada, travelling from Newfoundland to British Columbia as part of a mental health awareness effort and fundraiser.
Dininio, who is from Zephyr, Ont., set out from Newfoundland on April 1 and reached Vancouver on Aug. 22.
Although he completed the journey, he said reaching the finish line did not immediately feel like a triumph. “It never felt like a sense of accomplishment or a great achievement,” Dininio said. “I’ve been trying to process the end of it all, and understand what it is I am feeling.”
Dininio said the challenge was deeply personal, adding that mental health had affected him “my whole life,” including from a young age. “From a very young age, I had little issues that I didn’t realize were known as mental health issues.”
He described the run as testing more than physical endurance, saying it included exhaustion, isolation and a daily mental struggle. “I quit this run probably 50 times in my head, on the side of the road, but never actually followed it through,” he said.
Along the way, Dininio said strangers joined him for stretches and shared their own experiences with mental health. He said listening to those stories became both moving and emotionally overwhelming, and that the encounters changed how he viewed the purpose of his run.
By the time he reached the Pacific coast, Dininio’s journey had raised more than $50,000 for Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
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