Awesome: 14-year-old boy walks 40 miles with cerebral palsy-afflicted brother on his back

Lest you think there are no more outstanding young people around these days, let us introduce you to one:

Hunter Gandee, 14, is from Bedford, Michigan, and is the older brother of 7-year-old Braden, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Hunter and Braden are very close, and Hunter wanted to do something to show his love for his brother and to call attention to the issues facing those with cerebral palsy. Now you've probably heard of others who have done long walks, runs or bike rides to call attention to an issue, and we applaud them all. But Hunter took it one step further. He decided to walk 40 miles from Bedford to Ann Arbor with Braden on his back. And he made it, although it wasn't easy:

Hunter Gandee, 14, had been planning for weeks to pull off the walk, hoping to put a face on the muscular disorder that prevents his 7-year-old sibling, Braden, from being able to walk without help. But all his organizing couldn't prepare him for the conditions he faced as he packed the 50-pound boy over two days.

He even thought about giving up along the way. "Honestly, yes, there was a point that we did consider stopping," Hunter said. "Braden's legs - the chafing was getting pretty bad. We did have to consider stopping. It was at about the 30-mile point." A phone call changed all that. Hunter reached out to a friend, who said a prayer for the brothers. That, combined with some rest and a change in how Braden was positioned on his brother's back, helped the boys make it the final 10 miles. It may have taken a bit longer than they anticipated, but the Gandees and more than a dozen of their family members and friends strolled up a winding road Sunday toward the University of Michigan's wrestling centre. At the top of the hill, Hunter lifted up Braden so he could touch a "Go Blue" banner erected for them near the walk's endpoint. The move was met with thunderous applause and cheers from those who had gathered to see the boys finish the trek. Wonderful. What an outstanding young man, and what a great bond an experience like this must have helped to solidify between the two brothers. By the way, since Hunter's goal was to raise awareness about cerebral palsy, let's help him to make that a success. Cerebral palsy affects most of its victims at a very young age and affects the parts of the body that require free motion to function properly, especially arms and legs. It can be caused during pregnancy but as a general proposition, it results from damage to the motor control centers of the developing brain. That's where the "cerebral" part comes in. It's not that you broke your leg. It's that the part of the brain that tells the leg what to do is damaged. Those who suffer from it often have problems with the ability to feel sensations, with depth perception and also with simple communication. The news coverage we read of Hunter and Braden's walk, which was called the Cerebral Palsy Swagger, didn't mention a specific organization targeted for donations, but here is a link to United Cerebral Palsy if you'd like to make a gift in honor of these two amazing brothers.

Dan Calabrese——Bio and Archives

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