Brotherly love: Michigan teen to carry younger brother 40 miles for cerebral palsy awareness

Hunter Gandee, 14, wants to raise awareness about his younger brother's daily challenges, so the Temperance, Michigan, teen is planning to give 7-year-old Braden a 40-mile piggyback ride to do just that.

"Every day of his life so far has been harder than any single day of mine," Hunter told TODAY.com. "He fights through it. He’s a trouper."

Braden was born with cerebral palsy. Because he has limited mobility, since childhood his favourite mode of transportation has been on his big brother's back.

"He's very special to me," Braden said of Hunter. "He always helps me out. He's always there for me."

Now Hunter, captain of his school's wrestling team, plans on using his famous piggyback rides for even more good.

On June 7, the brothers will leave the Bedford Junior High wrestling room and begin the 40-mile trek to the University of Michigan wrestling room in Ann Arbor. They'll stop for the night after 25 miles and continue the next day.

Hunter told Monroe News that he's carried his little brother many places, "but I've never carried him to the University of Michigan."

Their estimated walking time is 13 hours.

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Hunter expects community members and some of his fellow wrestlers to join the walk, which they've dubbed "The Cerebral Palsy Swagger." He insists the long walk is strictly to raise awareness, but points would-be donors to the University of Michigan's Cerebral Palsy Research Consortium.

"We're trying to get people to want to know more about cerebral palsy," Hunter told TODAY.com. "They don’t understand the work he has to go through, for all the simple things in life that you and I just kind of do."

"I just want them to know I'm just like everybody else," Braden said. "I just have difficulty walking."

Hunter says his little brother, who can always be found in the front row at his wrestling matches, is his greatest inspiration.

"It gives me that extra boost, whenever I'm in the middle of a match, it just makes me want to try harder to pull out the win. It's a confidence thing for me," Hunter said.

Hunter is Braden's inspiration, too. Braden hopes to also wrestle in junior high. The Gandee family hopes research and technology will eventually increase Braden's mobility to do just that.

"Let Braden do the things he can do," mom Danielle Gandee said. "It shouldn’t be equipment that holds him back."

Both brothers plan to study biomedical engineering one day so they can design better mobility equipment.

Follow the brothers' walk on their Facebook page and blog.