life, the universe, and donna

To provide my family with a bit of privacy, I haven’t spoken about this publically before. But, with my mother’s permission, and to give a bit of background as to why I’m doing this… well, it’s time to speak out.

In May 2010, my mother was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a rare and aggressive type of cancer that doesn’t respond to the usual treatment and has a higher chance of recurrance. Thanks to this, she’s been about halfway through chemo treatment and received a mastectomy in June.

It sucks. It sucks really hard. My mom? My mom is awesome. I freaking adore her. We don’t always see eye to eye, but if there’s anyone in my life who I want to be when I grow up, it’s her. People occasionally remark on how similar we are (especially when I answer their phone… no, no, it’s Donna. Not Pat. Donna.) and I take that as the highest compliment.

She’s done some pretty awesome things. She raised me, for one. Sure, she had some help along the way (my Nana was another Amazing Woman in my life) but she was a 24 yr old divorced single mom with a barely 2 yr old squalling kid in ’81 with no job and few resources, and she managed to turn that around into my suburban childhood that never wanted for anything. Well, except maybe one more Barbie Doll, but luckily she knew when to tell me no, too.

I think I turned out pretty well, and I know I owe most of that to my mom.

Last weekend, I volunteered for the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers, and … well, I’m not the most rah rah kumbaya let’s all hold hands kind of girl, but something about watching those 1100 people walking 60km to raise over 2.4 million dollars for cancer research was inspiring. So many of the people I met were incredible — from teenage girls walking with their mom, to an older gentleman with a pink ribbon incorporated into his full sleeve tattoo, to a 7-week postpartum mom leaving her 4 kids at home with their dad for the weekend so she could do the full walk, to women my age in mid-chemo. And I started thinking… if THEY can do it, why can’t I?

The thought stuck with me all weekend, from helping out with tent assignments, to cheering people through the finish line, to participating in the closing ceremonies.

And I considered how much recent research has helped. Some people think that breast cancer has such a high survival rate that maybe the funding should be sent somewhere else… but they didn’t even know about the type of cancer my mother has even ten years ago. Without this research, and the subsequent altered treatment options, her survival chances wouldn’t be nearly as good as they are today. That’s huge. For my mom, and for my step-father, for Carol Ann, and me too.

So, in August 2011, I’ll be participating in the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers, a two-day, 60-kilometre walk through the neighbourhoods of Vancouver. I’m both terrified and excited, and ready to take on this challenge. I’ve committed to raising $3000 in honor of my incredible mother so that I can do this walk, which seems like an awful lot of money so … if you’d like to help, I would greatly appreciate it. Even if you’re not able to donate anything personally, I’d love it if you would send this link to other people and spread the word. Not just for me, but for the millions of women who will be affected by breast cancer in their lifetime. And for their friends & family, which pretty much includes… everybody ever.

There’s no cure for cancer. And, for a disease of mutation, it may not ever be possible to actually cure it before it morphs into something else. You know how they decide if you’ve been cured or not? When you die of something else. Harsh, right? But it’s damned treatable, and I’d like it a lot better if nobody had to die from this awful disease. British Columbia’s made some great advances in treatment and care, thanks to The Weekend… let’s keep that up and make it even better.

Please visit my page at endcancer.ca to donate.