The Mission Walker

This is a first-person memoir by Edie Littlefield Sundby, documenting her journey of deep faith and physical endurance after a terminal cancer diagnosis.

The book chronicles her becoming the first person in history to walk the 1,600-mile El Camino Real mission trail — a journey she began after losing a lung and surviving aggressive cancer treatments.

In The Mission Walker, Sundby reflects on being given “three months to live,” and how that prognosis became a turning point rather than an end. She recounts the ordeal of battling recurrent stage-4 cancer — undergoing multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation — yet choosing instead to embark on a grueling trek across deserts and mountains along the historic mission trail through Mexico and California.

Her journey becomes a powerful meditation on suffering, hope, purpose, and what it means to live — and walk — when life seems lost. The book weaves together adventure, spiritual reflection, and resilience.