Joshua Hall along with family, friends and strangers complete run from Grande Prairie to Fairview on Christmas Eve. Photo Credit: Joshua Hall

By Shane Clausing

mighty max

Grande Prairie runners complete journey to Fairview in support of Mighty Max

Jan 2, 2021 | 7:00 AM

On December 23, Joshua Hall set off on a run of a lifetime in support of Mighty Max.

Hall’s goal was to run from Grande Prairie to Fairview, with the hopes of raising awareness about Mighty Max.

Mighty Max Sych is a young child from Fairview who suffers from a rare disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Since November, Max’s family and community have been on a mad dash to come up with $2.8 million dollars to pay for the drug Zolgensma, which can help children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. They started a GoFundMe page which has so far raised over $800,000

Hall says he began running for Mighty Max early in the morning on December 23 and only made it to Sexsmith, where he began feeling some discomfort.

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“I jogged ten kilometers and it was about minus ten in the morning. My lungs were starting to get pretty chilly, so we decided to wait 2-3-hours for the weather. The weather did get better and we continued on. We made it to kilometer 24 by the end of the night and my body was giving out.”

While he was disappointed that he had to stop in Sexsmith, he and his group were determined to get to Fairview.

Hall and his group resumed running the next morning after some rest and recovery.

During the run, Hall says he was still sore and only made it to kilometre 37 before he had to rest again. Luckily for him, members of his group, which included family and friends were able to help.

“My right foot started to get some inflammation and that’s when my brother, Emerson, took over the run. He ran probably 15-20 kilometers and then we had a third guy dressed as Santa and he did tons of walking and even brought his dog.”

Once Hall and his runners got to Rycroft, he says that they were joined by his brother-in-law Jesse. Jesse joined along for the rest of the run and as they got closer to Fairview, more people joined in the run, including strangers.

When the group got to Dunvegan, two more people joined in the run.

After about a 15-20 kilometer run once they crossed the bridge, four more people decided to join.

One of the four people that joined in on the run was Mighty Max’s father, Bowden Sych.

As a group, they took turns running and continued their journey to Fairview. By 12:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, the group of runners reached their destination of Fairview.

While Hall doesn’t know how much money they were specifically able to raise because of their run, he hopes that he was able to bring awareness to Mighty Max and his situation.

“There is so many people supporting this young man, I can’t take credit for anything raised,” explained Hall. “I was just out there trying to get awareness and I’m glad that it did get some awareness.”

“Thank you to everybody that was there, and thank you to God for making it possible.”