80-year-old Parksville woman on 350 km Island rollerblading journey
PARKSVILLE — Fresh off her 80th birthday, Sonya Bardati is hitting the road with her rollerblades to raise money for animals in need.
Bardati celebrated the milestone on Tuesday, Aug. 9 and set off the same day on an approximately 350 kilometre journey from Port Hardy to Parksville to raise money for the Parksville-Qualicum Beach BC SPCA branch.
Her support for the SPCA began after adopting her cat Holly in 2011 as her late husband was dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and she credits Holly with keeping her sane through the loss.
“I was losing my husband to cancer, and he had decided he was going to go and get a cat. I came back from Arizona selling our place there, and I said ‘I’d like to go to the SPCA and get a cat’. He says, ‘I was there yesterday!’ So we had the same wavelength and hadn’t even talked about it.”