Sundby on 2,817-mile walk
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Edie Liddlefield Sundby is a walking miracle at the age of 71 after surviving what doctors expected to be certain death in 2007, all tied to the diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer.
Her story of survival is inspirational for sure, but perhaps the most interesting lesson from it all is the power for any man or woman to walk their way to healing—spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
That is what Sundby believes to be a key to her survival, displaying that belief when she came through Slidell this week in the midst of her current 2,817-mile walk from San Diego, CA, to St. Augustine, FL.
She was greeted by a small handful of people, including La. Rep. Mary DuBuisson and Slidell writer John Case, but otherwise her stroll through the city was barely noticed. It is the way Sundby has done it for years since finding the power in walking, she said.
“When I was diagnosed, I felt like the thing I had to do was keep moving,” she said. “I later found there were so many benefits from walking, especially in healing your body and processing the chemo chemicals I was taking in.
“One doctor later told me that walking is the closest thing to a miracle drug in today’s world,” she added.
Sundby was given three months to live when being told in 2007 that she had cancer throughout many of her vital organs. She took large doses of chemotherapy every three weeks for six years, leading to losing 60 percent of her liver and colon, and later the removal of her right lung after cancer came back six years later.
But through it all she has walked, and today is a firm believer that walking is a great healer for many illnesses, diseases and simply a way to renew spiritually and emotionally.
“I used to exercise and was considered to be healthy,” she said. “But after the cancer diagnosis I needed to walk to renew my mind. And I later learned it was physically important to process the chemo chemicals.
“What I have found out is that the body is a healing machine if we will allow it, and walking can be the most important medicine you can give yourself,” she said.
Sundby undertook her first big walk in 2013 when she went on the 796-mile Mission Trail, a rigorous walk near the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It took her through miles of desert territory, encountering walls of cactus, wild animals, physical and spiritual exhaustion, and encounters with drug smugglers.
When the cancer returned mid-way through the walk, she returned two-and-a-half years later to finish the Mission Trail.
Now, she is taking on the brutal 2,817 mile walk from San Diego to St. Augustine along what is known as the Old Spanish Trail, a road that also comes through Slidell. She travels up to 15 miles a day after beginning 18 months ago and has a driver/navigator along with her, driving a small RV where they sleep.
She doesn’t walk at night and partially pays for the trip through small donations, speaking engagements, and a book she wrote called “The Mission Walker,” which was a finalist for the Audie Award as one of the most inspirational books that year.
Sundby said the most memorable thing about the long walks is the people she meets.
“The best thing about it all is meeting people and talking to them,” she said. “I’ve seen so many interesting things and I especially have found that rural Louisiana is so wonderful, with a lot of history to be learned from it. But wherever I am walking, meeting the people has been the best thing.”