gutsy walk 2025: walking for connection and a cure
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the gutsy walk brings people together, spreads awareness, and raises money for improving quality of life and potentially a cure for ibd patients.
crohn's and colitis canada
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the 2025 gutsy walk takes place on the first day of june this year, and so far, they’ve already amassed 617 walking teams, 3025 participants, and over 16,000 donations. the annual charity walk is designed to raise money and spread awareness for the many canadians who live with various types of inflammatory bowel disease (ibd), including crohn’s and colitis.
people walk for many reasons. maybe they have ibd, or someone they love has ibd. others are involved because they work for professional organizations geared toward improving the lives of people with ibd, such as crohn’s and colitis canada, the organizers of the walk. regardless of the “why” behind people’s participation, the goals are simple: create a community of authentic connection and raise money to find a cure for the incurable disease that causes a significantly reduced quality of life and requires long-term medication management.
carissa stephens, a postsecondary student and ibd advocate, walks because she has crohn’s disease. growing up, she found that there was a severe lack of understanding surrounding her disease from people who called themselves friends.
“i had some friends that didn’t understand it. they almost seemed like if i said i was too tired to hang out with them, some of them were quite opinionated and would be like, ‘no, no, you aren’t. you’re just lying,’” she said. “they didn’t get it.”
sara levitt, a digital creator, model, and crohn’s and ostomy advocate, also has a personal connection to crohn’s disease because she also lives with it every day. sara also has an ostomy bag, which is sometimes needed for those with severe ibd who require part of their digestive tract to be removed.
she participates in advocacy and the gutsy walk because she realized how harmful the negative stigma can be to cope with when you live with both an invisible disease and an ostomy bag.
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“it’s a very challenging surgery to get ostomy surgery and i dealt with, besides just the negative stigma that comes with having crohn’s disease and the disease that revolves around poop, people just naturally feel a bit shy and embarrassed to talk about it.”
after getting her surgery when she was 13, sara notes that she struggled with self-esteem, body confidence, and self-love issues.
starting a conversation for awareness and understanding of ibd
even though the gutsy walk is a one-day event, its effects don’t stop there. the awareness that can be gained by people who participate spreads far and wide, helping to eliminate stigma and improve understanding, issues that both sara and carissa have faced because of their chronic disease.
the importance of sharing the experience with others stems from the fact that more than 320,000 canadians live with ibd, and many of them deal with the negative stigmas and feelings that are associated with a disease that revolves around things people don’t usually talk about openly.
the number of affected people used to be much smaller, though, according to kate lee, vice president, research and patient programs at crohn’s and colitis canada.
“historically, it used to be considered a rare disease,” she said. “it’s no longer rare now, and it’s continued to grow to the point where our scientists are predicting that, in roughly about ten years from now, maybe even sooner, 1 per cent of canadians will have ibd. so, that’s a significant number.”
she also says that because the number of people who have ibd is rising, people often look healthy on the outside. that magnitude of misunderstanding keeps people without the disease from being able to truly appreciate how those with ibd are affected regarding what it does to their body and mind, and how they have to live their lives to accommodate their disease.
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“we need to raise awareness to really help people understand,” kate said. “there’s a huge mental component as well and emotional, and that is a huge weight, lack of awareness, lack of understanding, it’s very difficult for the individual to live within society.”
having the general population understand more about ibd will also help in terms of policy, as policymakers who lack a thorough understanding of the disease are limited in their ability to discuss and implement adequate changes that could benefit people with the chronic condition.
it’s really about improving the knowledge of ibd from people who are living with the disease, all the way up to the government, so that the needs of this population of people are taken seriously.
“many folks, even now, they don’t tell their managers or they don’t tell their hr department that they have ibd. even small accommodations like having a cubicle if they have to go into the office or having an office close to the washroom, those kinds of accommodations help,” said kate. “but without that understanding, hr will be oblivious. their manager will be oblivious, and there is dissatisfaction on both ends.”
building a community for ibd
for sara and carissa, who have lived experience with all the downsides that can come with ibd, building a community of people whom they can relate to was vital to improve their overall ability to manage, cope, and live well with crohn’s disease.
for sara, she spent years living in fear and darkness because of her crohn’s disease, wondering if she was ever going to be good enough. that’s when she created her digital brand, the bag bish. she aims to demonstrate that having an ostomy bag doesn’t detract from one’s beauty. it amplifies it authentically.
“it was such a liberating moment for me,” she said. “i spent years just suffering alone and questioning my self-worth, and if i’m enough, am i beautiful? will people see me for more than my chronic illness, my visible difference, and all of that? and as soon as i shared my story, i saw already how many other lives and other ostomies and chronic illness individuals we’re having such a positive reaction.”
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today, she connects with her following and participates in the gutsy walk and other advocacy programs because she now sees that “putting myself out there on the forefront and breaking stigmas and helping others be able to live their authentic life” is a form of healing for both herself and others.
carissa also dealt with her share of fears of disclosing her illness to even close friends. it became an isolating experience because she didn’t know many other people who truly got what she was going through. she was grateful to start walking with the gutsy walk community shortly after her diagnosis, which really helped her find connections that she had previously lacked.
“it helped me a lot just to feel a sense of community, just to get really involved in fundraising, and it makes me feel very hopeful when i fundraise for the chance that we could find a cure someday if we raise enough money,” she said.
finding a cure and improving the quality of life for people with ibd
ibd is considered an autoimmune disease, which occurs when the immune system mistakenly identifies healthy cells in the body as foreign invaders and attacks them. in ibd, the foreign cells are part of the digestive tract.
since science has yet to understand both autoimmune disease in general, as well as ibd, it can be challenging to find therapies that work, let alone a full-blown cure. but the gutsy walk, along with crohn’s and colitis canada, continue to fundraise so that they can put money towards figuring out the mechanisms behind ibd and how to stop it in its tracks.
people can support in various ways. first is by registering on the gutsy walk website to become a fundraiser and looking to your network to find people who will support your fundraising goals. secondly, people can also donate directly through the website if they don’t feel comfortable with fundraising or lack the resources or time to contribute to that part of the cause. lastly, people can also volunteer to plan and execute the event, making it even easier to develop more walks across the country. so far this year, the walk has raised over $1.6 million.
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“the net proceeds go towards, first and foremost, finding the cure, which means that we support canadian researchers across canada who are focused on ibd research to help us find the cures and as well, it also helps us on the other half of our promise, which is improving the quality of life,” said kate.
since funds are allocated in various ways, any assistance people can provide is incredibly beneficial to both the organization and those living with ibd.
people who want to go on a walk to see what it’s about, whether they have ibd or not, are also welcome, so that they can improve their overall understanding of what it means to live with ibd and what canadians are doing to improve the lives of those with the disease.
“it’s a very challenging illness to navigate and a very challenging illness to communicate and talk about,” said sara. “if somebody doesn’t have ibd, it’s just so important to understand, if somebody you know is trying to open up about this to you, meet them with understanding and meet them with compassion and just know that it’s taking a lot for them mentally and physically to be able to talk about this. showing them your support is the best token and the best reaction that you can do, and just know that by you supporting them, it’s going to further them along on their journey and improve their life living with it.”
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