Thank you, sir.
I got to march with the Soldier On team in 2012. That's a picture of our team. I was joined by other ill and injured Canadian members, men and women across Canada with visible and non-visible injuries.
Everybody had their own obstacles to overcome in order just to volunteer to come out to this event. Some people were reluctant even to leave their house.
I'm an amputee so I have a very similar condition to Dale up there, completely different, but very similar, so doing the training and stuff for me was like, man, am I really going to be able to withstand marching this distance? But I always had good teammates, and if I looked at Dale, he was still going, so I was still going to go too.
Everybody had various different obstacles they had to confront and overcome just to get to Nijmegen to start the marches. Our team was a really great team. The whole team started and completed together, so all the members of our team did complete it and did get the medal.
In the end it's just so empowering to all of us ill and injured soldiers. You get there. You see everybody else, all the other teams. Our team was a really strong team as well. We completed. We didn't lose anybody so it's very empowering and it helps you accept your new normal. You're just another soldier and you're marching.
Being given the opportunity to go to Nijmegen, and face your fears and your personal obstacles was just an amazing opportunity. I met some people for the first time and we did some of our training marches here. When I talked to them at the end of the fourth day, I saw the way that people interacted with others—their attitudes and their emotions—was so vastly different and had improved so much.
We had people who were very introverted and did not want to speak to anybody, but I can tell you when you're marching for eight hours with somebody, you can eventually pull something out of them because you have to talk about something to keep your mind off marching.
It was a really great bonding experience. It was one of the highlights of my military career. It was an excellent opportunity for all ill and injured soldiers.
There's a nice picture of me.
Thank you.