Every year on November 11, Canadians pause in a moment of silence to honour and remember the men and women who have served, and continue to serve Canada during times of war, conflict and peace. We remember the more than 2,300,000 Canadians who have served throughout our nation’s history and the more than 118,000 who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Among the numerous men and women to serve our country is retired master corporal Natacha Dupuis, a runner in our masters program. Dupuis joined the reserves and enlisted with the Armoured Corp as a tanker at the age of 18. After completing basic training in Montreal and the Crewman course in Valcartier, Dupuis headed west where she joined the the British Columbia Regiment, completing an advanced reconnaissance course. Years later, she joined the Regular Force Leopard tank and Coyote Gunner/Driver training course.
Dupuis served overseas on three occassions, once in Bosnia as well as two tours in Afghanistan. In March 2009, during her second tour in Afghanistan, Dupuis was leading an armoured patrol in the Shah Wali Kot district, in the northern part of Kandahar province, when an improvised explosive device detonated beneath one of the six vehicles in her convoy. Two of her brothers in arms were killed in the blast and three others were seriously injured.
The painful experience weighed heavily on Dupuis during the remaining two months of her tour. Upon returning home, Dupuis described herself as being “in tatters, constantly reliving the incident, and [she] had nightmares, panic attaches, flashbacks, etc.” It was then she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. Pulling herself back up, she put into practice several tools she had accumulated, but the one she found helped the most was physical exercise.
Through physical exercise, Dupuis found her way to the sport of athletics where she was won the sprinting treble at the 2017 Invictus Games, taking home gold in the 100, 200, and 400 metre events. In addition Dupuis has also represented Canada at the World Masters Athletics Championships in 2018 where she helped the red and white to a silver in the 4×100 metres.