Finding Hope Blog – The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

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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We’d like you to meet one of the Teams participating at the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure.  Not only are they all dragon boat racers, each of these extraordinary women is a breast cancer survivor.

Teamwork. Synchronization. Endurance. Critical elements in dragon boat racing. And it is this same spirit that guides the Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing Team in their dedication to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure.

Formed 12 years ago in Edmonton by 25 breast cancer survivors, they are a team of courageous women with vision, energy and commitment who have raised over $10,000 each year since they started participating in the Run, this has earned them the Highest Women’s Team honours.

It was once thought that upper body exercise, including dragon boat racing, could cause breast cancer survivors to develop lymphedema, a painful and chronic swelling of the arm. Led by a sports medicine doctor, a pioneering group of survivors established the very first survivor dragon boat racing team, Vancouver’s Abreast in a Boat, who challenged this belief and proved that life after breast cancer can be as active and vigorous as you want it to be.

Inspired by this story, the Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing Team was formed.

As survivors, they participate in the Run to collectively promote their mission of hope and awareness for a full, active life after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Their passion for dragon boat racing, and their commitment to the Run have given them increased physical health, friendship, support and empowerment.

The Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing Team collaborate with other sister survivor teams across the country and use email to connect with each other and with their own personal networks to raise funds and awareness of their participation in the Run.

And, as they say, there’s always room in the boat for new members!

Join the Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing Team at the Run for the Cure on October 3.  Together we can create a future without breast cancer.

We’re checking in with Melanya, a Team Captain featured in our Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure video.

I was a presenter at the annual Ontario Public Service (OPS) Women of Influence and Inspiration Seminar in Toronto.  My role was to motivate and energize the 300 female provincial government employees in attendance. I provided options for people of different abilities so that everyone could participate in a brief stretch session set to women’s music.

I wore a pink shirt provided by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and had my Run for the Cure bib of who I was running for: Kathleen and Cecile. In 2009, I was team captain for a new GoodLife/OPS team of 29 “GoodLife OPS Mod Squad” that raised $2297. I wanted to promote the run/walk to the female audience. Many people came up to me afterwards to ask about the bib and Run for the Cure and Pink Ribbon sponges were given to all participants.

Months later a co-worker of mine asked if he could join our team this year. He told me a heartfelt story of how he just found out that his colleague has breast cancer and is undergoing surgery within a week. He shared to her how he was going to run for her and she was touched by his kindness.

Join Melanya at the Run for the Cure on October 3. Let’s create a future without breast cancer.

Meet the Queen’s University Rugby Team for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure!

Winning 11 championship titles requires unity and determination. And so does raising over $100,000 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. These are both remarkable accomplishments of the Queen’s University Rugby Team.

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We are very proud of this young lady! Tammy Evans, a Run Director, tell us about who she’s running for…her mom.

It was a beautiful sunny day, a perfect day to go over to Sobeys and grab some groceries for the barbeque we were having that night. Sitting in the parking lot was this large bright pink bus, with a group of people standing around it. On our way out of the store we stopped in the bus to take a look around, and see what all the commotion was about. It was the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Tour for the Cure Bus. After touring the bus they had asked my mother about her regular mammograms which she had skipped the last few years. They continued to talk and we went on our way back home. The next day she called and booked herself in for her mammogram, which she had a few weeks later.  We went on with our normal lives, not thinking much about her past mammogram. In the middle of June, a call had come through from her family doctor, which we thought was for her back surgery, which she was doing everything to avoid. She told me to call them back which I did; I can honestly say I regret making that phone call myself.

When I  called her doctors back, the secretary had told me they found a lump in my mother’s right breast and that they had to do further tests in order to determine if it was cancerous. The phone dropped out of my hand and I immediately started to cry. I’ve never had to deal with anything hard in my life, and I knew the way my mom talked about cancer… and none of it was good. I relayed the message and she was in as much shock and dismay as I was, but in hopes to cheer me up she said she was going to be fine and hugged me. The next week or more it played on my mind; I was always upset and worried about my mom. It took her no time to call my step dad who was working in Ontario and told him I needed to go up to get my mind off things. My mom has always been a really independent person and would rather deal with things like this on her own, so the trip did us both some good.  I left the end of June and she stayed down here undergoing tests. I never heard anything from her about it in a month so I thought everything was fine, but I’ve never been so wrong in my life. Read the rest of this entry »