Marc Beaudry says he’s a victor, not a victim.

For 10 years of his childhood, between the ages of five and 15, Beaudry says he was sexually abused.

What made matters worse is that nobody believed him.

Leading one of four “Victor Walks” in various Canadian cities on Saturday, Beaudry, now 36, braved the rain in downtown Toronto because he wants to make sure abused children “have a voice.”

“The walk is helping me to do what I’ve never been able to do, which is have my voice back,” he said. “It was hard for over 30 years of my life. I needed to shut up because people said to me, ‘You’re a liar, you can’t be the victim.’ ”

The Victor Walk initiative was started in 2013 by former NHL star Theo Fleury, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, when he walked from Toronto to Ottawa to raise awareness for the issue.

Fleury later co-founded the Breaking Free Foundation to provide abuse survivors with treatment and supports that they need to reclaim their lives. Since then, communities across the country have organized walks each year through the foundation in support of abused children.

Beaudry said it’s important that society views those like himself and Fleury not as victims, “but as somebody who survived, who is winning and who’s a victor.”

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