Purdue student walks 100 miles, raises more than $20K for Tyler Trent

Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Purdue student Aaron Lai walked 100 miles from West Lafayette to Bloomington, Ind., to honor Boilermakers super fan Tyler Trent, who died of cancer in January.

Lai began his walk Sunday morning. He arrived 99.6 miles later, just before Purdue faced Indiana in men's basketball Tuesday at Assembly Hall. He ran the final 5 miles.

Trent's parents, Tony and Kelly Trent, met him at the finish line.

Lai started the GoFundMe campaign A Walk for Tyler Trent, which had raised more than $23,000 as of Wednesday morning. More than 650 people have donated to the cause, which Lai created Jan. 18.

Trent, 20, was a freshman at Purdue. Lai is trying to help Trent reach his goal of $1 million for cancer research.

"Tyler is an inspiration to me because he never let cancer define who he was or the life he would live. His never give up attitude embodied the spirit of being a Boilermaker," Lai wrote on the GoFundMe campaign page.

Lai said money raised during his walk will benefit the Tyler Trent Cancer Research Endowment and be matched by the Walter Foundation.

"What an honor to meet you [Lai]! What an amazing young man you are and what an accomplishment," Kelly Trent tweeted. "Just wow! Words are inadequate for our gratefulness for your sacrifice! Praying you get some seriously good rest tonight and recovery! So glad our Boilers won!!"

Tonight's real MVP.

Aaron Lai (@alai2016) walked/ran 100 miles from West Lafayette to Bloomington in honor of Tyler Trent and his grandfather and their fights against cancer.

And he saw a @BoilerBall win: pic.twitter.com/0Y6YKALZ1u

- Purdue On BTN (@PurdueOnBTN) February 20, 2019

The No. 15 Boilermakers beat the Hoosiers 48-46 to improve to 19-7 on the season.

"I guess somehow Tyler Trent was looking down on me and giving me the strength to do this," Lai told the Big Ten Network.