(In 2026, Greg McPherson embarked on his longest journey walking to support the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa with the message to support his mission to help those with mental health and addictions issues. Photos: Stittsville Central)
In January of 2019, Greg McPherson and his wife, Ingrid, lost their oldest son Aric, his other children, Chelsea, Aaron and Kaelen, their older brother. Aric, an exceptional child who brought so much energy into the world, had been fighting mental health issues and lost his battle to addiction. In January of 2021, a very close friend of Aric and the family, Maddie, took her own life. Maddie never got over losing Aric.
At that time, Greg shared with us, “Two beautiful souls taken from the world before the world fully benefitted from what they had to offer. Both Aric and Maddie had taken advantage of services from the Youth Services Bureau in their teens and I am forever grateful that they were there for them. Tragically, there is no magic formula that will help everybody, but for every loss, there are a lot more people saved.”
Because Aric and Maddie had received support from the services offered at the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa (YSB), Greg wanted to give back for their help. His On The Road 4 Mental Health (OTR4Mental Health) walks support the Bureau every year and to date they have raised over $45,000 since 2022 with Greg’s more than 1.6 million steps.
Greg has walked many routes since he began his journeys in 2022 to spread the importance of Mental Health and Addictions issues to as many communities as he can.
- In 2022, his inaugural trek, a Cross City Walk with his son Aaron walking through 10 city wards and travelling 44km;
- In 2023, again saw the father and son team extend their walk by visiting all 24 Ottawa wards in 24 hours including a walk through the Byward Market to Alexandra Bridge to honour Aric;
- In 2024, Greg wanted to bring the importance of youth Mental Health and Addictions issues to Southern Ontario by walking from Niagara Falls to Stittsville. Aaron and his youngest son, Kaelen, joined him for the first leg of the journey, with Aaron joining Greg for the last leg. His daughter Chelsea travelled with him ensuring that if assistance was needed, she was there; she also made all of the arrangements for the journey. Of this walk, Greg said, “I am amazed by the many stories I heard and the support received from the communities and the many people met during this journey.”;
- In 2025, Greg and volunteers embarked on another 24-hour, 100+ kilometre walk through all 24 wards of Ottawa. It marked the fifth annual On the Road 4 Mental Health walk.
2026, took Greg a new direction labelling his walk ‘Steps to Remember 2026’. He walked several miles through various communities starting on May 29th walking the Niagara Parkway to Niagara-on-the-Lake to St. Catharines. Then on May 31st, travelling the Welland Canal Trail, passing through the communities of Port Colborne, Welland, Thorold, St. Catharines and more. June 13th saw him walking through Kingston; July 3rd Toronto to Ajax; July 5th Belleville to Napanee passing through the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory; July 18th Carleton Place to Arnprior; August 1st Kanata to Barrhaven then on to Ottawa City Hall; August 14th Hamilton to Burlington; August 16th urban Toronto; August 30th Orleans to Stittsville recreating the inaugural 2022 walk.
“Since 2022, OTR4Mental Health has raised over $45,000 for YSB and have had many people join us on the walks. Nobody has been crazy enough to accompany me on the full walks which included a 24 hour, 105km walk last year and a walk from Niagara Falls to Ottawa in 2024 but they have joined in for portions. All of my walk routes have been posted on my website with a live-tracker so that people can find me at any point on the routes,” shared Greg.
Greg added, “The walks are done now and I’m on to speaking engagements but will be planning the 2027 walks over the next few months when I plan to surpass the 2-million step mark.” If you would like to see one of the walks in your community, complete the form at https://otr4mentalhealth.com/contact-us/.
Greg is very open about mental health and hopes his family’s story will help others. Through powerful story telling, the stigma and shame attached can be diminished. He asks residents to support his mission to help those with mental health and addictions issues by donating to On the Road 4 Mental Health or the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa.
