An Alberta man is running from Port Alberni to Hollywood to get on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, but it's for a good cause.
Curtis Hargrove, 26, from Alberta, is making the 2,450 km run down the West Cost in support of Angel Magnussen, 18, of Port Alberni, who has down syndrome and autism.
Magnussen's mission is to promote health and well-being and ease suffering of children who have serious illnesses or tragedy by creating and giving them pillows or blankets, called Hugginz, which are created by Magnussen and distributed to children through Hugginz by Angel, a non-profit foundation.
Hargrove and Magnussen met in 2012 when they were contestants in the Scotia Bank Game Changers program in which they had an opportunity to win $100,000 for their charity of choice. Magnussen won and gave the prize to Variety of Kids.
She and Hargrove stayed in touch.
"Last year she asked me to be her prom date, so I went to her prom and I got to see how many people in her community," Hargrove said. "I February I heard she'd sent a blanket to Ellen [DeGeneres] and it got there, but she didn't get a response."
Hargrove, who started from Port Alberni Sunday and ran through Nanaimo on Monday, is running to Hollywood to deliver a blanket to DeGeneres personally to help promote Magnussen's foundation.
Hargrove is being escorted on the run and, averaging 50 kilometres per day, expects to be in Hollywood by Oct. 16.
People can follow his progress online at Livestream.com by visiting https://livestream.com and typing Hugginz Highway into the site search field.