CAMBRIDGE — For Ariel Walker, all the work has been worth it.

She never, however, expected to receive a provincial Good Citizenship award for all her efforts since co-founding the Huntington Society of Canada 35 years ago.

The Cambridge woman never knew she was nominated, not until she got a call from a provincial bureaucrat two weeks ago.

“I was flabbergasted… I had her repeat it three times. I could not conceptualize what she was talking about.”

The retired nurse had it sorted out by last Monday, when she attended ceremonies in the Queen’s Park rotunda to receive her medal. Earlier in the year, Walker also received a lifetime achievement award during the Cambridge YWCA Women of Distinction Awards.

Walker is modest about the lifetime of work she and her late husband, Ralph, did to help educate people about Huntington disease. It’s a fatal, inherited disease that kills specific brain cells. It causes emotional upset, along with mental and physical deterioration.

“When we started, it was for the betterment of the patients and families suffering from Huntington’s. We didn’t expect any accolades.”

She deserves the praise, says Don Lamont, executive director of the Huntington Society.

“Ariel Walker is a role model for the citizens of Ontario. She cares about people, she advocates on their behalf and she acts with reason.”

Walker is a native of Mt. Hope, a village south of Hamilton. She trained as a nurse, working in Hamilton, Montreal and Cambridge hospitals. She married Ralph, a teacher, in 1965.

In 1969, they came to Galt, which became part of the newly formed Cambridge in 1973. She eventually started work at Grandview Medical Centre. She retired in 2002, after 30 years in family medicine.

That’s the same year Ralph died. He received a Canada Volunteer award from the Governor General for his work with the Huntington Society, was Cambridge citizen of the year and is in the city’s hall of fame.

They started the society after a cousin was diagnosed with Huntington disease and realized there was no support or information available in Canada for families — or anywhere else.

He husband became executive director of the society 1975 as it grew to meet the need.

“The two of us worked really hard for the first two years at the kitchen table. Then he told the board we couldn’t do it any more on a volunteer basis… that’s when they asked him to work for the Huntington Society.”

While retired, Walker has plenty to do. When not devouring mystery novels — she’s a fan of Agatha Christie and John Grisham — Walker is a volunteer running the gift shop at Sunnyside nursing home in Kitchener, where a brother lives.

The Huntington Society keeps her busy, too. Last week, cases of amaryllis flowers were stacked in her house. She was working the phones to sell them in the society’s biggest annual fundraiser.

Walker continues to attend Huntington conferences and meetings. She writes “Ariel View,” a column in the Huntington Society newsletter.

“When we started out, it was very family-oriented. We knew everybody’s name, all the children, the history of people. People just loved to hear about what Ralph and I were doing. I write about my grandkids … It’s really folksy.”

Walker is proud of the way the society has given families a “tremendous amount of hope” in the face of a mysterious disease.

She’s not sure if a cure will ever be found, but said advances in genetic testing now identify who’s susceptible to the disease. That gives couples the information they need to decide if they want to have children, she said.

“I certainly would love to have a cure, but we’ve made great strides in 35 years.”

Walker offers simple advice to anyone with a dream to help people.

“If you don’t try it, you’ll always wish you had. If you fail, that’s OK, too.”

kswayze@cambridgereporter.com