‘Purge it out’: ‘Mission Walker’ begins healing journey in San Antonio along Old Spanish Trail

Scott Huddleston, Staff writer, San Antonio Express-News, May 7, 2021

Edie Littlefield Sundby has one lung. She’s also missing part of her liver, colon and stomach.

The California woman underwent 79 rounds of chemotherapy and four major surgeries after being diagnosed with stage 4 gall bladder cancer in 2007.

Now, 69-year-old Sundby is on a mission, walking from San Antonio to Florida.

“If it takes me my entire year to do it, wonderful. I want to walk slowly. If I walk 12 miles a day, I’m happy,” Sundby said as she ambled through downtown and San Antonio’s East Side to Kirby on Friday, en route to Seguin, Schulenberg, Houston and the Louisiana border.

Sundby has defied doctors’ expectations. In 2015, she walked 800 miles, from her home in San Diego to Sonoma, on a trail that connects California’s historic missions. Then, she trekked a similar distance through Baja, California, along the southern portion of El Camino Real de las Californias, using pack mules, with vaqueros guiding her through a “cactus jungle.”

An Oklahoma native and former corporate executive who chronicled her travels in a 2017 book, “Mission Walker,” Sundby credits walking with saving her life. She describes it as a spiritual discipline that connects her to people and communities.

“The only way I was able to process that chemotherapy in my body without the chemo killing me was to allow my body to sweat it out and purge it out,” Sundby said.

She began walking in San Antonio this week as part of a trek along the Old Spanish Trail, one of America’s first coast-to-coast highways, running more than 2,800 miles from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida. She chose San Antonio as the starting point because it’s nearly midway, and she found support from groups based here. Her husband rides a bicycle on the Texas leg of the journey, pulling a cart with their belongings, including tents, sleeping bags and cooking equipment for camping.

“The reason I’m walking is to get my breath back. This past year, all of us in this country have had the breath knocked out of us. We have been imprisoned by this pandemic, by this coronavirus. We are so fearful, and there’s been so much anxiety, so much negativity that has suffocated all of us,” Sundby said. “When we can’t change our physical situation, when we can’t change the realities of what’s happening around us, we can change our inner state of being. Walking allows me to elevate my inner state of being.”

Jim Hollerbach is board president of Old Spanish Trail 100, which is planning a series of events in 2024 to mark the centennial of the cross-country motorway at the dawn of America’s automobile era. Much of the route was used by stagecoaches and travelers in earlier times.

Hollerbach noticed how focused Sundby was while walking with her earlier this week.

“When she gets on the trail, she is headstrong. She’s got a mission, and she gets on it. She takes everything in,” Hollerbach said.

One person strolling alongside her was a man who’d been treated for throat cancer, according to Hollerbach. The man was so inspired by her story that he became an avid walker and formed a walking group with others as a healthy outlet.

“What she’s done and what she’s lived through is incredible. Here I am, sweating, and she’s just trucking right along,” Hollerbach added. “It’s really promoting things right in front of people that they don’t even realize, like the Old Spanish Trail.”

Henry Rosales, president and CEO of the American Volkssport Association, which moved its headquarters recently from Universal City to San Antonio’s King William Historic District, said Sundby’s story mirrors the group’s purpose and highlights the benefits of walking during the pandemic. The group is planning an international walking festival in 2023 that is expected to draw more than 4,000 walking enthusiasts from around the world to San Antonio.

“I like that she’s walking to promote health and wellness because that’s what our mission is,” Rosales said. “You can still go out and exercise and walk. That’s a good place to be, especially right now, since everybody’s been indoors for over a year.”

Sundby, who has spoken at medical professional association events about her recovery, hopes to reach the Louisiana border in 35 to 40 days. She might keep walking, or she might take a break for a week, maybe a month. But Sundby wants to get back on the trail.

“Our bodies are healing machines, but they require movement to do their job,” she said. “I’m also walking, in a way, to shed a spotlight on these beautiful communities and these beautiful people that we meet along the walk of life.”

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NOTE FROM EDITOR:  This article was originally published on May 7, 2021 by the San Antonio Express-News.  We thank them for giving us permission to republish it in this edition.  The Spanish translation of the article was made by Conexion Media Group.  As of the printing of this edition, Edie has walked XXXX miles from San Antonio to XXXX.

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