Rakesh Kumar is walking across Canada in an effort to raise awareness about borderline personality disorder and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness
Rakesh Kumar is walking across Canada to raise awareness of the need to destigmatize mental health disorders.
Kumar’s Walking Across Canada for Healing and Hope – a daunting but courageous solo journey that began June 1 in his hometown of Delta, B.C. – continues as he copes with his own mental health challenges.
“I struggled a lot back home in India. When I came to Canada in 2019, after struggling for another three years, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto diagnosed me with borderline personality disorder,” Kumar told SooToday.
People with borderline personality disorder have an exceptionally strong fear of abandonment.
“Every time the person feels fear of abandonment there are rapid mood swings, impulsive decisions, self-doubt, and there is emotional pain. When I lived in India I always ran away from home. You can feel happy and in seconds that can change. Sometimes people try to harm themselves and have suicidal thoughts,” Kumar said.
“People with BPD are misunderstood as manipulative. Nobody understands them because they always feel like they’re attention seekers,” Kumar added.
Kumar has undergone dialectical behaviour therapy, a type of psychotherapy that helps people manage intense emotions.
He also views his cross-Canada walk as another form of therapy.
“Walking is, I feel, a healing. It connects with nature. With BPD I used to spend a lot of time thinking about the past or the future, but then I started walking and it helped me to stay in the present more.”
Kumar began his journey with a 50-pound backpack and a small amount of money.
He said the first month of the walk was hard.
“I was just walking by myself but by the time I got to Calgary people started to know about me through social media.”
In every city he’s meeting people and they offer him support, even truckers on the highway.
“They sometimes stop to share a meal with me and talk about mental health. I go to many towns and now every town welcomes me and helps me with whatever I need. They give me food and shelter. That’s how it’s been going.”
With the help of supporters, Kumar has been resting at Glenview Cottages & Campground in Sault Ste. Marie for the past few days.
He plans to start the next leg of his journey this morning by walking east toward Sudbury.
Kumar hopes to complete his walk across Canada by reaching St. John’s by the end of May 2026.
Before then, Kumar plans to meet up with friends in Toronto in November and be accompanied by a driver as backup support for the remainder of his cross-Canada walk.
At that point he plans to start raising funds for those suffering from BPD by attaching links through his social media pages to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, the BPD Society of BC and Punjabi Community Health Services in Brampton.
Kumar can be contacted through email and several social media platforms, such as Instagram.
“I just want to tell everyone to take pain and suffering as a teacher and face it and eventually it will lose its power over you and you will live happily.
“That’s what I learned. I faced everything in front of me, whatever came, and the Rakesh I knew five months ago has totally changed.”