Breast cancer research and awareness is near and dear to my heart. Almost two years ago my girlfriend Kristen announced that she wanted to do the Weekend to End 60km walk in Toronto, ON, immediately I said "Me too!". It was something I knew I wanted to experience and had been on my mind for sometime but just didn't know how to 'fit it in' or who I could wrangle into joining me. So when she mentioned it I had to jump on board. It was even more compelling that I would experience this journey with Kristen as she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and (at the time) was going to be celebrating her 5 year anniversary of being cancer free in the coming 18 mths. That was in 2008. By September 2009 we raised over $4000 and we were pumped to walk the 60kms over two days through the streets of Toronto.
I had no idea just how this experience was going to change my life. Less than an hour into the walk and we were already talking about how great it would be to get a group of our girlfriends and family members to walk with us in 2010. We gave thoughtful consideration into what the name of our team would be called, all the while quietly thinking we'd be lucky to get even two more people to commit to this event. Some of our girlfriends had done it in the past, everyone we were considering asking had young children and were either on maternity leave or in the throws of going back to work from their second maternity leave. I had briefly discussed achieving the walk with my sisters in the past (Cory had suggested we do it a few years back) but no one really committed. I kept thinking "if only I could channel the emotions I was experiencing so they could know that they just had to join us!".
Well our enthusiasm must have said it all, because this September Kristen and I are heading back to Toronto with 15 other women. 4 girlfriends, my four sisters, 3 cousins, 2 cousins-in-law, a childhood friend of my cousin-in-law and another friends daughter = Fight Like a Girl! We have sold over 1000 shirts (which we designed), thrown a very successful silent auction and raised $33,368 (so far).
We have both sides of the fight on our team. Kristen our 5 year survivor and Lynn our fighter. We will walk proud, we will walk strong and we will walk united against womens cancers.
In honour of Kristen, Lynn, my entire team and all women please enjoy this amazing and inspirational video:
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