Manitoba teen runs 100 km for missing, murdered indigenous women

A Manitoba teen plans to run more than 100 kilometres over the next four days in hopes of raising awareness for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Tracie Leost, 16, gets her "Journey of Hope" run underway in the Lake Manitoba community of Oak Point Wednesday morning. From there, she will head southeast to Winnipeg.

The competitive runner said she was motivated to make the journey as a way of drawing attention to an important issue she feels needs to be addressed.

"You can go missing anywhere, and I mean if that happened to me than I would want as many people helping," said Leost. "You don't have to be in a bad place to go missing. It can happen to anyone, anywhere."

Leost said she hopes to inspire others to follow in her foot steps.

"Being the first person who I know of to do something, I guess this drastic, opens up a pathway that a lot of other people can do similar things, so it gives other people opportunities."

Leost plans to finish her run at the missing and murdered indigenous women monument at The Forks on Saturday.

Leost is also raising money for the Families First Foundation, an organization that helps the families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

"I have the message in my head that I know what I'm doing is right, and that's enough for me."