“You’re not going to get better unless you’re on your feet.”
That was the lesson the late Dr. Patrick McDermott imparted to a 15-year-old Trevor Redmond when the young teen was recovering from a leg injury that almost led to amputation.
Now, Redmond, 55, known as the Fellow in Yellow, is living that lesson out to the fullest by making his way across Canada, on his feet, for the third time.
In 2006, he walked. In 2009, he biked. The first two trips were for cancer prevention, research and awareness.
Now, the Nova Scotia native is running across the nation to raise awareness about the connection between physical, mental and spiritual health, and to inspire people to be active.
His motto is “The more we move, the more we move others.
“If somebody says, ‘You can’t do it,’ then that’s the greatest curse,” Redmond said.
‘How do I go on?’
When he arrived in Clearwater, he was approached by a number of teens, many of whom were looking for a word and a picture with the Fellow in Yellow. He gave a short speech to a small group in front of Buy Low and explained some of his journey.
Redmond said that, as a kid, he had dreams of being in the Canadian Football League (CFL), or the Olympics, or becoming a rock or movie star. But a car crash that sent him flying almost 30 feet resulted in a leg injury that put those dreams into question.
“I got struck by a car. I’m laying in the hospital. They’re saying they’re going to take my leg,” he said. “Okay, you’re not going to be in the CFL, you’re not going to be in the Olympics, you got these strange scars now that you don’t know what to do with.”
Redmond recalled his young self asking, “How do I go on?”
When the possibility of losing his leg was still on the table, Redmond remembers thinking he might be the only amputee in his school. He didn’t know how to deal with that. He didn’t know any other amputees, he said.
“In my mind popped out, ‘Well, of course you do. You know Terry Fox. And he did okay.”
Following in Fox’s footsteps, Redmond took a stroke of very bad luck and turned it into something monumental.
He mentioned a number of others who inspired his journey, including Rick Hansen, Steve Fonyo and Stephen Hawking.
Redmond said he’s surpassed the distances travelled in Canada by his heroes.
“There’s no way I could believe I could go this far,” he said.
Kierra Spear of Clearwater, 13, was one of the teens listening to Redmond in front of Buy Low.
“I think it’s amazing what he’s doing,” she said. “And doing the Terry Fox run at school, I’ll probably think of him. My uncle had an amputated leg, and I just think what he’s doing and from what he’s been through, it’s amazing.”
A terminally-ill doctor’s stern advice
Redmond has many heroes, but his biggest inspiration was Dr. McDermott from the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax.
After the car crash, in which Redmond says he “pirouetted in the air at least three times,” he underwent 12 surgeries, and had an open wound on his leg down to the bone for a year and a half. He spent a month-and-a-half in the hospital, he said.
During that time, McDermott gave Redmond some tough advice that sticks with him to this day.
He remembers using his wheelchair to get to the TV room in the hospital. But McDermott sternly prompted him not to use the wheelchair, and to use the crutches instead. The doctor wanted young Redmond to get up and stop feeling sorry for himself, he explained.
“From that point, it really was in my hands. (The doctor) said, ‘You’re not to use this wheelchair again. In fact, take the wheelchair away from him,’” Redmond recalled.
“I was getting comfortable in the wheelchair. I was popping wheelies and all this other stuff, right? So, he did not want me feeling comfortable in the position I was in. He wanted me up and moving.”
Redmond noted he was one of McDermott’s last patients, as the 39-year-old physician was terminally ill. He said his accident was in September, and he got the life-changing advice from the doctor in October. By December, McDermott had passed away, Redmond said.
The Fellow in Yellow summarized the lesson he learned from the doctor.
“We heal as we move,” he said.
“If you want to heal in a wheelchair, you’re going to stay in that wheelchair for the rest of your life. If you want to heal laying down in a bed, looking up at the ceiling, hoping and praying that something’s going to happen, you’re going to be in that bed for the rest of your life. Get on your feet and move,” Redmond said.
“If you want to, at the age of 55, with an injured leg, run across Canada, by frig, get out there and find a way to run across Canada.”
Healing body, mind and spirit
The cross-country journeyer explained that when someone has an injury, they always have an injury, and that he’s still recovering.
He said that applies to both mental and physical health, and added that people need to find techniques to keep themselves moving. He said if you can keep yourself physically healthy, then you can keep yourself mentally healthy, and that in turn keeps you spiritually healthy.
“There is a truly Grand Trifecta, and that is a healthy mind, a healthy body, and a healthy spirit,” he said.
“I want every Canadian to think about that when they think about their health. One of those gets weaker, they all get weaker. Get one stronger, they all become stronger.”
Three trips across a continent
When Black Press Media caught up with Redmond in Clearwater, he was on the second half of his running journey, which began on March 26, 2024, his birthday. He launched from Halifax and has taken an indirect route through Canada that includes all 10 provinces.
As of mid-April, 2026, he was headed north through the North Thompson before his eventual turn east, back towards Halifax.
“I’ve walked across Canada, I’ve bicycled across Canada, I’ve run across Canada, coast to coast, all three of those,” he said, adding that he’s researched it and, as far as he can tell, he’s the only one who’s done all three.
He mentioned it was near the 20th anniversary of his first walk across the nation in 2006.
He remembers, 20 years ago, passing through the North Thompson. What he recalls most is that, as he puts it, he lost his independence, because so many people were willing to pay for his needs.
“I couldn’t go anywhere without somebody paying for something.”
Redmond said he’s especially excited to be running across the Yellowhead Highway because of his nickname, the Fellow in Yellow.
“This is my road,” he said.
In his pass through Barriere, he said he got a grand welcome from the elementary school, with an announcement on the PA system that he was passing by. He met some of the kids and said that, as he was running away, many of them were running along the fence line with him.
“It was just great,” he said.
‘You can accomplish anything’
Redmond pointed to a ‘deficit’ in Canada, saying not enough money is being invested in mental health.
He said he wants to support the Dollar A Day Foundation, which helps bolster frontline mental health and addictions programs across the country.
The Fellow in Yellow said discovering what makes you important will be your most important discovery.
“Be very excited about what you do, and you can accomplish anything,” he said. “I know it. I don’t believe it, I know it.”
As of April 19, his website said he’d gone 37,707 km in total across Canada. The morning of April 20, his social media account noted that he was on his way to Valemount.