Cross-Country Walk To Raise Awareness For Cancer To End On Long Island
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - One pancreatic cancer advocate is just a few miles away from finishing his second walk across the country to raise money and awareness for the disease.
As WCBS 880's Monica Miller reported, BJ Timoner has gone through four pairs of running shoes and has lost 40 pounds over the course of his 3,000-mile excursion.
He crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday en route to Jones Beach, where his cross-country run is scheduled to end on Tuesday.
As of 1 p.m., he was in Brooklyn and headed east toward Jamaica, Queens, 1010 WINS reported.
"I started in Santa Monica on January 2 of this year," Timoner, 43, told Miller of his second BJ Walks America cross-country expedition.
Cross-Country Walk To Raise Awareness For Cancer To End On Long Island
The New Mexico resident said pancreatic cancer had an impact on him at a young age.
"I lost my father Bert to pancreatic cancer when I was 5 years old," he explained. "He was just 41 years old."
LINK: BJ Walks America Official Website
Timoner said he wanted to do something special to get his message heard about the often fatal disease.
"Survivability, it's single digits. It's still six percent over five years and three out of four people are expected to pass away within the first year of diagnosis," he told Miller.
He added carrying a 60-pound backpack isn't the hardest part of the journey.
"The loneliness of it and the voluntary homelessness aspect of it," Timoner told Miller.
He has raised nearly $50,000 over the course of the two walks. Timoner said 100 percent of the donations go to the Lustgarten Foundation for pancreatic cancer research.
He planned to walk as far as Jamaica, Queens on Sunday and will take a day off to rest before making his scheduled arrival at Jones Beach Tuesday morning.
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