The 2016 edition of Trail, where participants will walk from Point Pedro in Jaffna to Dondra Head in Matara to raise money for a cancer treatment center in Galle, kicked off on Thursday.
It is expected to take 28 days to complete the journey.
The elaborate opening ceremony saw speeches from Trail founders Sarinda Unamboowe and Nathan Sivagananathan, legendary cricketers Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, and C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of the Northern Province.
Trail was born from Unamboowe’s pledge to walk the length of Sri Lanka if the civil war were to end and Sivagananathan’s dream to improve the island’s cancer treatments. The walk serves a dual purpose: to unite the citizens of the North and South while contributing to the fight against cancer.
“Your walk is more than a mere walk for a hospital. It’s a walk for peace, it’s a walk for understanding, it’s a walk for social regeneration, and it’s a walk for communal harmony,” said Wigneswaran.
This is the second Trail walk. The 2011 version began in Matara and ended in Jaffna, and saw over 30,000 participants and 250,000 donors raise over 2.6 million dollars for the construction of the 120-bed Tellippalai Cancer Hospital. Since its founding, the hospital has treated over 4,500 patients from the Northern, North Central, and Eastern provinces.
“People in the north no longer have to come to Colombo for cancer treatments. We want to do the same for the people of the South,” said Sivagananathan.
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