Michael is honouring his mother through his "Cards for Cancer" fundraiser.
I registered as an individual last year for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. As a fundraiser, I started a campaign, which I call “Cards for Cancer.”
When I was growing up, my mother and I spent every Saturday in the spring and summer going to yard sales and flea markets. We both loved to find great deals, and collected many items. As the years passed, our obsession led to a full basement and garage, and boxes of found treasures piled up in our dining room. The TV show “Hoarders” was not around at this time, but if it had been, we would have been on it. Finally, my mother realized our hobby was out of control, and decided to open a second hand store, where we sold all of our items we collected over the years: books, movies, dishes, sports cards and much, much more. Finally, as more years passed, our house had the space to be a home again.
My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. She was brave and strong, and fought it off. However, the cancer returned and in 2001 she passed away. Since then, I relocated to Edmonton, Alberta. Of all the things I had collected while growing up, the one collection I partly kept going was my postcards. I had managed to keep this collection organized and under control, until recently. Earlier this year, I responded to an online ad, from someone who had boxes of postcards for sale for only $2.00 per box, each containing 300 to 400 postcards, but each box was of the same card. We set up a meeting, and I went to see the postcards.
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Paula at present day after completing her treatments.
My name is Paula and, like many others, thought that I was the picture of health. I rarely, if ever, got sick, was physically active and in the best shape that I’ve been in years. Life was pretty good, or so I thought. I had just recently met a wonderful man, my kids were grown and wonderfully independent, I have two beautiful granddaughters and I am only 50!
In the early spring of 2010 one of my dearest friends came over for dinner and during the course of the evening we spoke of her now deceased mother who had died seven years earlier due to breast cancer that had eventually spread through her entire body. She passed away in her very early 50s. Her story is that the lump had not been correctly diagnosed so therefore enabled the cancer to spread to many areas of her body. The reason we spoke of this was because I too had a lump in my breast that had been there for five years, but I had been told it was just a cyst. I had left it since I had not noticed any changes in my breast at all, and so felt relatively safe. With the urging of my dear friend and my wonderful man, I promised I would get it checked again and just have the lump removed. I made my appointment feeling very confident that all this would entail is the removal of the cyst and life would go on. I was not at all prepared for the news I received. Within one week I went from healthy Paula to someone with breast cancer. It was rather unnerving to me as my grandmother on my father’s side had breast cancer and passed away in her early 60s back in 1964 or 1965. I felt I was safe from this disease since it was my father’s mother, but now realize that genetics are not parental-specific.
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Kathryn shows her medal at the Disney Princess Half Marathon.
Running has been so tightly entwined with my breast cancer experience. I was a new runner when I got the diagnosis, and running has been my constant therapist.
Never in my life have I run anywhere that did not culminate in boarding a bus or arriving late for class. No speed or endurance whatsoever, not fun, picked last for teams, etc. But after a hand injury that turned my life upside down, I had nothing else to do, so I started off with a 700-metre 20-minute “run.” Following that with a bit of experimentation, I learned that pace was everything. I used a running app to avoid going too fast, and in six months had worked up to a 10k. Quite impressed with myself, I set my sights on the Disney Princess Half Marathon 2010 as the culmination of this turnaround of my sedentary ways.
As I was packing my suitcase for the trip, my husband nonchalantly mentioned the hospital called to say they wanted me back to “redo” my mammogram the next week. As survivors know, that would be the magnified view mammogram appointment at the top of this slippery slope we come to know so well.
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Lise, right, with her friend Anne as a breast cancer survivor at the Freedom Ride in 2010.
Here is my story of breast cancer.
I received my diagnosis of breast cancer on Dec. 19, 2007 … Merry Christmas?!?!?
I had noticed a lump in my right breast in October and found that in November it was still there. I had a biopsy done on Dec. 12, 2007 to find out on Dec. 19, 2007 that it was indeed cancer.
My husband and I were horrified. We had to tell our three children and also, Christmas was only a week away … How do we deal with that kind of news during a festive season like Christmas? It was really hard, but my husband is my rock and together we were able to go through the festive season smoothly.
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Stephanie, second from left, with her mother Sylvia, sister Vanessa, and grandmother Uranie at the Cook for the Cure party.
My name is Stephanie, and I have been hosting an annual Cook for the Cure party to support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation since 2008. In only three years, my friends, family and I have been able to donate over $10,000 to the Foundation.
About seven years ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and three years ago my maternal grandmother was diagnosed. My paternal grandmother died of breast cancer before I was born. When I started thinking about all the people I know who have been affected by this disease, it dawned on me that something had to be done! I thought that the Cook for the Cure program would be a great platform for fundraising.
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