PH Patients Among Those with Pacing Parson for Final Yards of His Cross-Country Walk for PHA

(L-R) PHA Executive Vice President Carl Hicks, Don's wife Loretta Stevenson,
Don "Pacing Parson" Stevenson and PHA President & CEO Rino Aldrighetti

Ahead of his 80th birthday, Don Stevenson (AKA the Pacing Parson), a Seattle-area (Auburn, Wash.) retired minister and former U.S. Marine, has just completed a four-month, 3,000-mile cross-country walk, raising awareness and, so far, nearly $10,000 in donations and pledges for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA).

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, joined by PHA support group patients and caregivers, Stevenson walked the final yards of his 3,000-mile cross-country journey. The end of the walk was Stevenson’s slowest, as he was joined by the PHA community, including PH patients, who struggle to breathe without portable oxygen or daily medication to get around and for whom even short walks can be laboring.

PHA Staff give Don and Loretta Stevenson a standing ovation for their work.

Press coverage of Stevenson's walk has educated more people about PH, or high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs, a debilitating disease that affects the functioning of the heart and can lead to death from heart failure. He hopes more people know that there is no cure and PH, while progressive, is often misdiagnosed as asthma or other less life-threatening diseases. Without treatment, the average survival rate is 2.8 years after diagnosis.

Stevenson and the PHA group crossed a periwinkle finish line, symbolic of the color of the lips of some PH patients when they lack oxygen. Periwinkle also represents hope and empowerment to the PHA community.

PHA Staff and PH community members walk
the final steps with the Pacing Parson.

"We are both humbled and empowered by what the Pacing Parson has done to help PHA provide support for patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals and researchers in our collective fight against PH," said Rino Aldrighetti, PHA's president and CEO, at a short finish-line presentation. "PHA, which for 12 consecutive years has received Charity Navigator's top rating -- four stars -- for fiscal accountability and transparency, will celebrate our PH successes as part of PH Awareness Month in November and our 25th anniversary in 2016. We invite the public to support Stevenson's dedication to PHA's cause with a donation."

The Pacing Parson reaches the periwinkle finish line.

The Pacing Parson’s victory reception was sponsored by PHA corporate partners Actelion, Bayer, and United Therapeutics and Lung Biotechnology. Other PHA corporate-partner support for the Pacing Parson’s charity walk included social media and marketing support from Gilead and Reata. Employees from PHA, Actelion, Bayer and Gilead joined Stevenson as he passed through their cities and towns across the country.

Learn more about the Pacing Parson.