Barry Longjohn. (Submitted photo/Gloria Bell)

By Ian Gustafson

Slow and steady wins the race

P.A. man shares inspiring tale from walker to poles

Aug 5, 2020 | 12:00 PM

A Prince Albert man is sharing his story of the progress he’s made learning to be mobile again without his walker.

Barry Longjohn, 60, wanted to learn how to walk without such external assistance the moment he saw Gloria Bell a year and a half ago. She teaches an urban poling class at the Alfred Jenkins Field House, which is as it sounds – walking with poles.

“One day I just stopped her and asked her if I could just try them out and they worked pretty good and I liked them,” Longjohn told paNOW.

It has now been a couple of months since he stopped having to use the walker for most trips. The former casino employee of 18 years has suffered a couple of injuries and finds movement difficult. He broke his femur in his left leg, tore cartilage in his knee, and has had a hip replacement.

When he started using the poles, Bell would walk along with him and tell him what to do and teach him the techniques, even though he wasn’t enrolled in her class.

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Longjohn said he’s not sure if his health will be back to the way it was before the injuries, but the doctor told him walking would definitely help.

“[It’s] a long slow process; one of these days I’ll walk decent again. So, I keep going, hoping one of these days it’ll happen,” he explained.

When he first started using the poles, he admitted it took him a while to learn, but he can now do seven laps around the track at the Alfred Jenkins Field House.

“Sometimes when I have the energy, I’ll go out every day of the week,” he explained, noting it feels a lot more normal walking with the poles instead of his walker. He’s hoping to get back into shape and get a job back at the casino.

“Every day I had fun, I loved that job,” he explained. “I’m trying my best to get myself back.”

Bell remembers Longjohn as being eager to get started with the new activity.

“He asked me ‘what about those poles? Do you think I could walk with those poles? I want to walk upright like a man,” she explained.

She told him she would meet him the next day and when they got started, she said it was a little scary because he was unstable.

“I thought if I don’t help him he might go to [the store] and buy poles, and who knows what’ll happen, so I may as well get him a good product and show him the technique,” Bell said, noting some poles had a therapeutic design to assist people with stability issues.

Initially she’d watch him move around the track with his walker and then try the poles for a lap or so, but it was hard going and then he didn’t show up for a while. But recently Longjohn was back at it, standing upright and walking more freely with his poles at the Field House.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was just cheering for him when I saw him walking. It was just amazing.”

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Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow