“If I can give them a breath of oxygen, the challenge is won”, he crosses France on foot for children with cancer

He left this Thursday, November 14 for a 1,300 km journey linking Mercantour to Cotentin for the benefit of children suffering from cancer. Nicolas Pilorin, guide on the Island of Noirmoutier, is setting out for the 4th consecutive year for a good cause.

1,300 km on foot: this is the new challenge for Nicolas Pilorin, tourist guide on the Island of Noirmoutier, who has just set off from Mercantour this Thursday, November 14 to join the Normandy cliffs of Cotentin, within a month.

A crossing of France to offer “a breath of oxygen” to children suffering from cancer for whom the AOPA association (Onco Plein Air Association) organizes outdoor outings.

This challenge is a bit like the calm after the storm, for the 29-year-old Noirmoutrain, accustomed to the crowds of tourists to whom he shows the smallest nooks and crannies of the Island. For a month, the Vendéen will follow in the footsteps of Sylvain Tesson, drawing inspiration from his novel “Sur les Chemins Noirs”, where he will cross the country diagonally, from the south-east to the north-west.

“After the summer season, I need to come face to face with myself and experience a solo human adventure. But for othersconfides the walker that the as far as the eye can see peaks of Mercantour are not scary. My goal is also to discover the different faces and landscapes of France, by taking the small roads, paths and hollow paths.

For four years, it has become a habit: once the summer is over, the young man swaps his tourist guide hat for that of an adventurer, far from the beaten track. And for a good cause.

In 2021, it is on a scooter, accompanied by his dog Lafayette, that Nicolas Pilorin takes on his first challenge: a journey from the northernmost point of France to the southernmost point. An epic journey of more than 1,000 km from Dunkirk (North) to Gruau-du-Roi (Gard), where he will cycle for the League against Cancer.

We all know people affected by cancer. We cannot remain indifferent to their struggles

The following year, he tackled the GR20 in Corsica, the hardest hike in Europe with its 180 km and 16,000 m altitude difference, in the company of a friend. Again, to fight cancer. And it is then by Kayak, in 2023, that the traveler will go up the Loire, this time for the benefit of the SNSM Sea Rescuers of L’Herbaudière.

This year, he will therefore walk for AOPA, which supports children with cancer treated in pediatric oncology at the Nantes and Angers University Hospitals. “I was very touched by a friend’s fight against his illness and I know other people in my close circle who have been affected by cancerconfides the young man. This challenge is to tell them that they are not alone and that their fight is also a source of motivation.”

If I can give them a breath of fresh air, the challenge is won!

A challenge rich in meaning for this sport and nature lover who will walk to give a little oxygen to sick children, for whom outings outside are done at “homeopathic doses”recalls the co-president of AOPA.

“Often, they feel isolated in the hospital and when they go home, they cannot go to their friends for fear of catching a germexplains Véronique Souchet. So when they arrive in the association and can do activities with other children, it’s magical! These are truly moments of happiness for them… and a breath of fresh air also for their parents.”

Children feel isolated in the hospital and when they go home, they can’t go to their friends’ houses for fear of catching a germ

Véronique Souchet

AOPA Co-President

Outdoor sporting activities, amusement parks, trips to Mont Saint-Michel… The association offers each child one activity per month, over a day or a weekend, as well as a week in the mountains during the summer.

Outings that allow children to maintain physical activity and better cope with their treatment. “They are less tired, more fit and this gives them energy to fight even harder against the disease”notes the co-president of the association and mother of a boy who is now cured of cancer.

This observation is also at the origin of the name of the organization: “Onco Plein Air Associationcreated in 1997 by Dr Françoise Méchinaud, then a pediatric oncologist at the Nantes University Hospital who, following an internship in Canada, realized the benefits of sport for children with cancer.

Back in France, she created the association, declared of general interest, and organized a few months later, the first summer stay in Brittany. And 27 years later, AOPA continues its fight and offers a little respite to the sixty children it supports today.

“These are children who are at the end of treatment or in remissionspecifies the co-president of AOPA, but also the children we supported who are now cured and whom we continue to welcome because their journey is an encouragement to those who are still sick.”

Thanks to physical activities, children tolerate treatments better, they are less tired and it gives them energy to fight.

Véronique Souchet

Co-president of the Onco Plein Air Association

For his part, Nicolas Pilorin will continue his sporting and human adventure which will take him to Cotentin, where he should arrive in mid-December, “at a rate of around thirty km per day”.

An online fundraiser is open to collect donations which will be donated to AOPA.

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