After five days, a family walking to raise awareness for their son's rare disease made it to the final destination at the B.C. legislature in Victoria. Navpreet and Stalin Gill, along with friends, walked 120 km from Downtown Vancouver to advocate for funding for experimental gene therapy for their three-year-old son, Gurmoh, who suffers from Spastic Paraplegia Type 4, a rare neurodegenerative disorder.
The family is seeking approximately $8 million for treatment developed by researchers at McGill University. B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne met with the family but offered no funding commitment, noting the therapies are experimental.