Finding Hope Blog – The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

We’re proud to introduce our new regular blogger Nina from the Elmwood Eagles Team!

Elmwood’s Prefect Team generates school spirit by organizing events, represent their fellow students with the School’s administration and act as role models to other Elmwood girls. As Prefect at Large, Nina is responsible for promoting community service at Elmwood, and as extension has been named the Student Chair for Elmwood’s Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure Committee.  Nina is a grade twelve student and has attended Elmwood since grade nine.  Nina is looking forward to making sure the Elmwood team reaches of its goals for the 2010 Run for the Cure!

Well hello everybody!

Being part of the Elmwood Eagles Run for the Cure team is something every Elmwood student is encouraged to do. For me, being part of the preparation process this year is very special, and I’m honoured to tell you all about how the Eagles get ready for the Run!

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Meet the Hughes Hugs Team. They’ll be running for Nana Hughes on October 3 at the

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure.

Every spring, the community gathers in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia to celebrate the Apple Blossom Festival. Some 80,000 people from the surrounding communities attend the Apple Blossom Festival Parade, and Tim Hughes hosts a delicious and delightful family brunch at his home, right along the parade route.

In 2003, their family tradition became the kick-off fundraiser for the Hughes Hugs Team participation in  the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. Every year their Party for a Cure draws enthusiastic support from their neighbours, community and the entire region. This year, the Party for the Cure set a new record by raising $2,086 and demonstrated that turning an existing party into a fundraiser can be both fun and successful.

The Hughes Hugs Team is running for Tim’s mother, Nancy, who has been living with breast cancer for 10 years. Nancy vividly remembers her own mother’s pain and scarring from a mastectomy in the 1960s. Today, the Hughes Hugs Team has 14 members, but there are countless nieces, nephews, cousins and good friends who provide encouragement and help raise funds from local businesses, churches as well as their friends and neighbours.

Tim is a fitness instructor and he is inspired to see Canadians of all ages and abilities – even those who may not be as physically active as he is – participate in the Run. And it reminds him that anyone can develop cancer at any time, and they will need the kind of strength and endurance that he admires in his mother in order to survive. Tim is insistent: “I want results. I want a cure”.

Nancy lives with restricted mobility now, but promises to be at the finish line on the day of the Run, right where she has been every year that the Hughes Hugs have participated, to show her support and appreciation. And after the Run, the Hughes Hugs team and their families go back to Tim’s home and enjoy another wonderful family brunch.

On October 3, 2010, who are you running for?™

Breast cancer survivor and Run for the Cure participant Lana Waters tells us how surviving breast cancer gave her the strength and inspiration to follow all of her dreams.

Ten years ago, my life changed with news that cancer was in my body.  While I handed my physical self over to doctors who removed a breast lump and lymph nodes then filled me with Chemotherapy and Radiation, I held my emotional self dear and grew into who I really wanted to be.

Cancer taught me how important it is to just be myself and once treatment was behind me, I took my chance in life and followed a dream.  I went into a field of work that I love and made a success of myself while collecting top awards along the way.

The success came while I grew fuller, stronger ties to my family and friends and the man of my dreams came into my life just a year ago.

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