Walkers puzzled by lack of interest

Press, 20 April 1979, Page 4

Walkers puzzled by lack of interest

The long-distance South African walker, John Dunlop, and his Mexican-born wife, Teresa, are mystified at the reaction they have had so far from the Cancer Society of New Zealand. The couple are a third of the way around the world on a campaign to collect money for cancer research, but they cannot understand why the New Zealand society has not taken more advantage of them to raise money. “The executive men of the Cancer Society shock me in so far as they show a complete lack of. get up and go,” Mr Dunlop said after arriving in Christchurch yesterday morning. “There is no scanning machine in Christchurch or the South Island. Why is there no machine here? By the time a person goes to Auckland and finds that he has got cancer it is probably too late. Early detection of cancer is probably the best method of control of cancer, the world’s second-biggest killer.

“But why haven’t they taken advantage of us? We gave them four months ndtice we were coming,” said Mr Dunlop. Mrs Dunlop said that the society appeared to be geared for the annual appeal campaign drive but seemed unable to meet the challenge of something a little different.

The couple said that the response from sponsors and from young people had been good. Mr Dunlop was accompanied from Kaiapoi by eight schoolgirls from the Kaiapoi High School, and welcomed to the city by the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay). They obtained a permit from the City Council to park their sponsored caravan in Cathedral Square. The walking has affected Mr Dunlop mentally more than physically. “Physically I’m fine. Three weeks after setting out on each leg I get into a rhythm and my body becomes conditioned, but mentally it becomes demanding to wake up every day at 5 a.m. and tell myself I have to walk 40km,” he said. Mr Dunlop spoke to pupils of Riccarton High School yesterday afternoon and today will speak to pupils at Bumside High School, make an appearance

at a store from midday to 1.30 p.m., then speak to the pupils at Shirley Boys High School. On Saturday he will be at the New Brighton shopping mall from 11 a.m., and on Sunday will leave Cathedral Square at 8 ajn. He has invited members of the public to walk some of the way to Norwood (36km) with him. Mr and Mrs Dunlop are looking forward to their next leg. South America, and to their stay in Mexico, when Mrs Dunlop will introduce her parents to her husband, for the first time and hopes to have her baby there. She is four months pregnant. When the couple are not on one of their walks, they work to earn money to keep themselves. Mr Dunlop writes about subjects he comes across on his travels, and Mrs Dunlop sketches with charcoal pencil, or if she has time, paints in oil.