Running for mental health

From today's The Chronicle Herald:

Wayne Cho remembers clearly the day he figured out why his guts were always in a knot.

Now 34, he arrived in Canada from China 20 years ago. Cho went back to school as an adult, to York University, and recognized himself in the pages of his Abnormal Psychology textbook.

"It wasn’t ‘Aha!’ "Cho said in Halifax on Wednesday. "It was more like, ‘Damn, I got anxiety!’

"I felt a little bit uncomfortable about the stigma, like, ‘Oh, I’ve got mental illness,’ but I was also relieved by the fact that I know what it is. I’d been worrying about the strange feeling in my stomach, for as long as I can remember. At that point, I knew I had to do something."

That something, he decided, would be to run across Canada to raise awareness about anxiety and depression, which affects about half a million Canadians, according to Statistics Canada.

To read the entire story, click here.

Wayne Cho pounds the pavement on Joseph Howe Drive [in Halifax], Wednesday. Cho, who just ran across Newfoundland and is now into Nova Scotia, is attempting to run across Canada to raise awareness about anxiety and depression. (Photograph by Tim Krochak / The Chronicle Herald)