No matter how great your support system, and I am very lucky in that department, there are always challenges that one must face alone.
One of my challenges is the annual walk to raise money for my mother’s namesake fund at Princess Margaret Hospital. My parents started the fund in 2004 shortly after my mother’s leukemia diagnosis. They were amazed at how expensive it is to be chronically ill. For some, the cost of a simple cab ride to the hospital can be a barrier to treatment. In other cases, families have to choose between eating and paying rent or getting medication which can be astronomically expensive and not covered by OHIP or even extended health care. Yes, even in Canada.
My parents were distressed both by the financial burdens on patients and the reality that the doctors and nurses were regularly forced to either watch people go without help or pay for it out of their own pockets. By being a resource for the patients the fund also lifts some of the burden on the doctors and nurses. My mother was told many times what a huge difference her fund made to her fellow patients and to the hospital staff who care for them. We will always be grateful for that.
Every year we replenish the fund by asking people to sponsor us for our 5k walk as part of the Toronto Marathon. I find this process a challenge indeed. Not the fundraising part per se. I used to work as a fundraiser and am comfortable asking for money on behalf of such a worthy project. People respond well. Our team has been a top fundraiser several times over the last several years.
The tough part for me is race day. Although the reality of my mother’s illness and death is with me daily, arriving at Queen’s Park and seeing the various groups of people coming together for their respective teams in memory or support of their own friend or family member brings it all back. And every year there are large new teams, fancily T-shirted with snappy names, representing every kind of cancer you can imagine. They are there for the first time. For me it’s a sad reminder that this cruel disease has not and will not let up.
I must confess that race day this year was somewhat easier for me. It was May 15th and the weather was typical of this spring – cold and very rainy. Our son was with me so I was somewhat distracted, first by his increasingly wet feet and then by his musings, about 2k into the walk, about taking the subway back if he was too tired when we got to the half way mark. Seconds after he mentioned the subway we crossed University Avenue and began the trek back to the finish line. Although our 5k became a solid 4k, we did finish. And this time, instead of being choked with emotion as I crossed the finish line I was grateful that our little man would soon be out of his wet clothes.
I am thankful to have had his cheerful and undaunted company during the walk. I am also grateful to those who helped with the fundraising. They all did an amazing job. But those who actually came out to walk on such a horrible day went truly above and beyond. My father was away so my brother, my son and I represented our family. We needed to be there. Our father’s friend Frank who is in his late 70’s walked the entire route despite sore knees and hips. Family friends, Sam and Arnie along with Leslie, Charotte, Stephen, Rosanna and Bruce who work with my father, Wow! It is one thing to help fundraise but another to give up your Sunday morning to walk in the cold rain. Thank you all so much. And to our faithful and generous donors – we literally could not do it without you. But ultimately it’s not about us, it is about helping people who are fighting for their lives in the only way we can.
