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

A man from Montreal is walking across Canada with a cart, a bike and his service dog, Timber and he's expected to pass through Sudbury, Ont., sometime next week. 

Claude Camirand set off from Montreal in June to raise awareness about epilepsy, a condition he lives with and says is often misunderstood.

"I may look healthy in general, but inside it's a mess. The reality is I'm not that healthy," Camirand told CBC News from the side of Highway 17, near Deux-Rivières, Ont. 

The 34-year-old has been travelling along the Trans-Canada Highway system and has so far trekked 800 kilometres. 

Camirand said he was an acrobatic circus performer in Montreal but in 2022 he experienced a fall that resulted in a concussion, triggering seizures. He said he had unknowingly experienced seizures since childhood, but the concussion dramatically increased both the number and intensity of his epileptic episodes.

"I was having too much seizures, and the doctors said, if it keeps going, they don't expect me to live that long." Camirand said. "We were talking about 20 to 30 seizures a week... Normally, people don't last more than three or four years with that much seizure because it damages the brain."

He said people often don't know how to react, either to someone experiencing a seizure or the presence of a service dog. 

Camirand walks or bikes with Timber, a trained seizure-alert dog who warns him when one could be coming on. That gives him time to lie down and safely away from traffic. 

He pulls a modified child carrier for a bike filled with supplies and sleeps in it unless someone along the route offers him shelter. 

'I'm not in a rush'

In June, Camirand dedicated his walk to the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance and now shares updates and donation links on his public Facebook page, one for epilepsy research and one for his day-to-day expenses. 

"I decided to live my life no matter what… So I'm like I'm gonna just go on a journey and see how it goes," he said. 

Despite the physical toll and the constant fear of having another seizure, Camirand said he's determined to keep going, even if the journey takes him into the winter. 

"I'm not in a rush, like if I reach the winter and [for] example I'm in Manitoba, because it takes forever to walk, that could happen," He said. "But if my health declines, I have to stop. I will stop and I will continue when I can, because the main concern is to stay healthy."

But the journey is going well so far. Since he started Camirand said the number of seizures he's had has dropped. 

"I've only had like, three seizures in the last month, and normally I will have like, over 30. So that's a good sign," he said. 

He believes the stress of urban life in Montreal was making things worse and that time on the road paired with a simpler routine is helping. 

"The only stress I have is to watch behind for a car," Camirand said.