It's going to take 210 people and 12,600 kilometres to fill the well-worn shoes of weekend warrior Chad Cieslik.
He has walked in every Weekend to End Breast Cancer since the event premiered in 2003.
But Mr. Cieslik won't be walking this year. Lung cancer has decided to take a swing at the Hamilton, Ont., resident, but he's not out of the fight.
"I had a dream to keep my legacy somewhat alive," Mr. Cieslik said. "Knowing that I was not going to be participating in the walks physically, I threw out a challenge."
Mr. Cieslik set a goal to recruit a team of 35 walkers in each of the six cities that hold the walk - renamed the Weekend to End Women's Cancer in 2009 - and to raise $420,000 countrywide.
The Weekend to End Women's Cancers is a fundraiser for local cancer foundations that has participants do a 60-kilometre walk over two days. Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton hold walks.
This weekend, his team - dubbed the Butterfly of Hope - is marching through Calgary's hills lead by Louise Eisfeld of Toronto, who will be walking in all six weekends in Mr. Cieslik's stead.
If Calgary is any indication, Mr. Cieslik's plan will succeed. The team surpassed its goal for walkers and fundraising with 40 members raising $94,905.
"Greater things will come from [battling cancer] No matter how hard this disease tries to break their souls, it fails miserably. It will never break our spirits," Mr. Cieslik said.
Mr. Cieslik's spirit inspired Ms. Eisfeld to take on the mammoth task of travelling across the country and walking 360 kilometres.
She met Mr. Cieslik five years ago at the Toronto walk.
"I originally signed up to do the walk as a way to keep off the weight after I quit smoking, and after I met him, that was it. I was hooked," she said. "He's my hero, today's superman."
Mr. Cieslik credits his endurance to a 10-year breast cancer survivor from Calgary named Shannon Duke.
He started walking for his mother-in-law, and continued because of the women he met along the way, but he hit a wall in 2006 in Calgary.
"I said, I can't do this anymore. My knees are sore. My ankles are killing me and I just can't make it up this hill. I swore I wasn't going to do Edmonton, Vancouver or Montreal," Mr. Cieslik said.
Mr. Cieslik finished the walk and flew home, where an e-mail was waiting to refuel him. It read: "Chad, you are the most amazing man....You are truly making a difference and inspiring so many."
The e-mail was from Ms. Duke, who did the 2006 Calgary walk to celebrate five years cancer-free after she beat stage four breast that had spread to her bones - the disease that took the lives of her grandmother, mother and two sisters.
It's Ms. Duke who inspired the name Butterfly of Hope.
She and her friends dipped their breasts in paint and created a custom piece of art featuring breast butterflies as a way to fundraise for the weekend.
"The reason I chose a butterfly as the symbol is because when you are in a dark time, it is like your chrysalis. If you actually can sit in the chrysalis and can learn from the messages of the darkness, you will come out a butterfly," she said.
Mr. Cieslik said the walks have prepared him for his own dark moment with cancer.
"Life is worth living. That's what these people all taught me. Had I not done these walks and having been diagnosed with cancer, I don't know if I would have been more devastated that I already am," he said.
And he isn't counting himself out. "I'm going to take my team back," he said.
The walk season kicked off in Ottawa in June. The remaining four Butterfly of Hope teams will participate in walks during August and September.