Archive for the Category ◊ Living with Cancer ◊

29 Jul 2010 Doing My Part, Part 2
Author: Gail |  Category: Haunted by Cancer, Mobile Blogging, Volunteering/Charity  | Leave a Comment

It’s official — I am now a volunteer driver for the Canadian Cancer Society! It’s been a process, and this morning was the final step before I could start. Had a two-hour office training session this morning at 8am, then toured Sunnybrook Hospital, Princess Margaret Lodge, met the dispatchers, and over to Princess Margaret Hospital, all before I started my afternoon work at The Firm. I start driving patients next week, when I return from Boston.

27 Jul 2010 Counselling And Support Referral Resources In Toronto
Author: Gail |  Category: Culture + Society, Gail at Large, Haunted by Cancer, Loss, Widowhood  | Leave a Comment

'til death do us part

As part of my participation in a University of Toronto research study a week ago about psychological health in women, I was given a resource list that I thought would benefit the greater Googling public in the Toronto area. I want to write more about this, but as usual I’m short on time so I’ll just post the list for now.

Distress Lines

Distress Centre of Toronto 24-hour crisis line: (416) 408-4357 (408-HELP)
http://www.torontodistresscentre.com/

Gerstein Centre Crisis Line: (416) 929-5200
http://www.gersteincentre.org/

Referral Services

Women’s Counselling, Education, and Referral Service: (416) 534-7501
- free service offering referrals to therapy
http://www.wcrec.org/

211 Community Connection
- information on government health and social services
- dial 211 or visit: http://www.211toronto.ca/

Low-cost or Free Counselling Services in Toronto

  1. OISE/UT Counselling and Psychoeducational Clinic
    - individual psychotherapy with graduate students, runs Sep-May, sliding scale
    252 Bloor St. West, 7th Floor (Bloor/St. George)
    Tel: (416) 978-0620
  2. Catholic Family Services
    - individual and group psychotherapy and wellness groups — sliding scale to no fee
    1155 Yonge St., Suite 200 (Yonge and Summerhill)
    Tel: (416) 921-1163 (they also have a location at Yonge and Finch)
  3. Family Service Association
    - individual psychotherapy, sliding scale
    355 Church St. (Church and Gerrard)
    Tel: (416) 595-9618
  4. Women’s Health in Women’s Hands
    - health services (and therapy) for women of colour in the Toronto area, no fee
    2 Carlton St., Suite 500 (College and Yonge)
    Tel: (416) 593-7655
22 Apr 2010 Relay For Life 2010 — please sponsor me!
Author: Gail |  Category: Linkage, Living with Cancer, Videoclips, Volunteering/Charity  | 2 Comments

I also like the French version (there are subtitles in English as well):

I’m in one of the two teams (thus far) from The Brides’ Project doing this year’s Relay For Life to benefit the Canadian Cancer Society. I just set up my personal page:

http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/gailedwinfielding

Just like the previous two years we’re doing the overnight relay wearing “basement” gowns from The Brides’ Project, so stay tuned for more photos of us wearing the UGLIEST wedding dresses you’ve ever seen. Here’s the photoset from last year of Neesa and Natalia and I looking for our ultimate fugly gowns: [thumbnails] [slideshow]

Our team pages for The Brides’ Project are here:
The Brides’ Project
The Brides’ Project Too

Here’s a video of The Brides’ Project Team from 2008.

Relay For Life takes place at Forest Hill Memorial Park on Friday, June 11, from 7pm to 7am.

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Relay For Life

If you’ve never heard of Relay For Life, here’s the scoop:

Relay For Life is a 12 hour, non-competitive, overnight event. Teams of 10 people – family, friends, neighbours, co-workers – take turns walking around a track to raise funds to make cancer history.

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life is more than just a fundraiser. It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends and celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost to cancer, and fight back in the hope of finding a cure for this terrible disease.

Relay is fun, fulfilling, and your participation gives strength to our mission to eradicate cancer. Walk with us in this inspirational 12-hour overnight event.

Last year Neesa and I were up all night long without a nap. At some point in the night, I think we lost our minds:

airtime

Natalia also had a wardrobe malfunction.

yes, that would be Neesa doing cartwheels in a wedding dress in front of a bank of porta-johns

wedding march

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We’ll have a tent set up, plenty of snacks and drinks to keep us going, and it’ll be a lot of fun staying up all night together! If you can’t join us, we would love your sponsorship of any amount.

08 Mar 2010 March 27: Bone Marrow Drive
Author: Gail |  Category: Haunted by Cancer, Linkage, Videoclips  | 5 Comments

Back in May 2008, I posted an appeal for people of Asian descent to sign up at local bone marrow registries on behalf of Carolyn Tam, who was fighting leukemia. Less than one year later, I sadly posted the news that Carolyn had passed away.

From the One Match website:

A person’s best chance of finding a matching donor is within his or her own ethnic group, it is important that the composition of OneMatch reflect Canada’s rich ethnic diversity. It is also important for the future of OneMatch to attract young donors.

The Asian population is not well-represented in the donor databases, creating a situation where it is difficult to find matches for Asians waiting to receive bone marrow transplants.

More than 20 Chinese patients in Canada are searching for a stem cell donor that can save their lives. People 17-50 years of age are needed to join OneMatch registry.

There is a National Chinese Stem Cell Drive taking place in Vancouver and Toronto on Saturday, March 27 from 11am-5pm. There are three locations in the Greater Toronto Area and one Greater Vancouver:

Markham: First Markham Place (Hwy 7/Woodbine)
Scarborough: Splendid China Mall (Kennedy Rd/Steeles Ave E.)
Toronto: Chinese Gospel Church (450 Dundas West/Spadina – Chinatown)
Richmond: Aberdeen Centre (No 3 Rd/Cambie Rd)

To find out more information, please visit www.chinesestemcell.ca or www.onematch.ca today! Registering as a stem cell donor is free.

30 Sep 2009 A Call For Wedding Dresses
Author: Gail |  Category: Gail at Large, Haunted by Cancer, Volunteering/Charity  | 3 Comments

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I know what you’re thinking. What on earth are they WEARING?!?

Remember back in June, when I did Relay For Life and I asked for sponsors? You guys really came through for me — I raised hundreds of dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society by walking around a track overnight for 12 hours with Neesa and Natalia and others wearing some pretty fugly outfits. Believe me, we wouldn’t be caught dead in these threads if it weren’t for a good cause!

I just attended a volunteer meeting at The Brides’ Project tonight and one of the items on the agenda is that we are very low on dresses right now. Due to economic factors we aren’t receiving the same level of donations from salons that we have in the past, but we have more appointments than ever. Since we were featured on the CBC in June our dress donations from individuals has increased, but it’s apparently not enough. CityTV was at the shop today and will be mentioning us either tomorrow or the following day, but I don’t have a TV… watch for me, please! (Not that I’ll be in it, but you know what I mean.)

It’s such a weird title for a post, but this is a call for wedding dresses! If you just got married, or have a wedding dress that’s less than five years old, or know someone who recently married and would like to donate her dress to a non-profit bridal salon that supports cancer charities, send her to our website to learn more about what we do and how to go about donating her dress:

http://www.thebridesproject.com

I’m the webmaster, the in-house photographer, and I also volunteer in the shop, so if she wants to know more I can certainly tell her all about it — by phone, email, what-have-you. I’ve been a volunteer at The Brides’ Project for exactly a year and supporting cancer charities is something very personal to me, having lost the love of my life to cancer only a couple of months after our wedding. Tomorrow would’ve been our four-year wedding anniversary had David survived. I can’t get those four years back, but I can certainly do this…

We call the dresses that have been down the aisle more than once our “Good Karma Dresses” and some of them have even been down the aisle several times. One bride in Saskatchewan wore it again for a “Trash the Dress” photo session, sent it through the washing machine (it came out perfectly clean), and declared it “durable — just like my marriage”. Yes, we’re environmentally friendly, too!

If you decide to donate your wedding dress, you can leave a note for the next bride and share in the joy, knowing that your donation will go the mile towards supporting Camp Quality and other cancer-related charities. And it will very likely encourage the next person to do the same. See? I’ve got dozens of stories just like that volunteering at TBP over the past year. Be the next one!

12 May 2009 Relay For Life 2009
Author: Gail |  Category: Haunted by Cancer, Volunteering/Charity  | Tags: ,  | Leave a Comment

Relay For Life

I signed on as team captain of The Brides’ Project team in Relay For Life this year, which takes place at Forest Hill Memorial Park on June 12. I’m working on the team page at the moment, so once that’s up I’m going to be posting lots of reminders for the next month about it! [Update: my page is here -- http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/gailatlarge]

Thanks for sponsoring me!

If you’ve never heard of Relay For Life, here’s the scoop:

Relay For Life is a 12 hour, non-competitive, overnight event. Teams of 10 people – family, friends, neighbours, co-workers – take turns walking around a track to raise funds to make cancer history.

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life is more than just a fundraiser. It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends and celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost to cancer, and fight back in the hope of finding a cure for this terrible disease.

Relay is fun, fulfilling, and your participation gives strength to our mission to eradicate cancer. Walk with us in this inspirational 12-hour overnight event.

The Brides’ Project is a few people short of the full complement of 10, so if you’d like to join us, contact me for more details: gailatlarge@gmail.com

Here’s a video of The Brides’ Project Team from 2008.

We’ll have a tent set up, plenty of snacks and drinks to keep us going, and it’ll be a lot of fun staying up all night together!

29 Apr 2009 Rest In Peace, Carolyn
Author: Gail |  Category: Haunted by Cancer  | Leave a Comment

Carolyn Tam

I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of days, and I wish I didn’t have to write this.

Carolyn Tam is now in peace, after fighting for her life for the past two and a half years, and with others fighting for her life, against leukemia. I didn’t know her directly, but she is a friend of a friend. I’ve written about her in May and June of last year, adding my support to a campaign to encourage people to donate to their local bone marrow registry. Valiant efforts were made worldwide in this regard to boost the numbers of donors within the Asian population and find a match for Carolyn. After many registration drives on her behalf, I held so much hope for her chances. Carolyn lost her fight on April 23, 2009, in Vancouver, surrounded by her loved ones. (That day is also my younger brother’s birthday, so I won’t be forgetting it.)

Wherever you are in the world, please visit your local bone marrow registry to get yourself tested and registered. All it takes is a simple blood test to determine your bone marrow profile for matching purposes, and there is no obligation to donate, you always have a choice.

Please register and save a life.

18 Mar 2009 March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness + Nutrition Month
Author: Gail |  Category: Family, Haunted by Cancer, Linkage, Vancouver  | Leave a Comment

the folks
[my father and aunties]

The month is well past halfway over, but I’m finally getting around to posting this. From the Canadian Cancer Society website:

Did you know?

Screening is an important way to prevent and detect colorectal cancer because:

  • Colorectal cancer usually develops over a long time without causing any signs or symptoms.
  • Screening can detect cancer and pre-cancerous polyps before any symptoms appear.
  • When symptoms do start they are often vague and easily mistaken for more common illnesses.
  • Regular physical activity and eating a healthy diet may help reduce your risk of colorectal cancer.

Statistics

Currently, colorectal cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in Canada.

In 2008, it was estimated that about 21,500 Canadians were diagnosed with colorectal cancer and about 8,900 died from the disease.

On average, 413 Canadians will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer every week and 171 Canadians will die of colorectal cancer every week.

Colorectal cancer mortality rates continue to decline in both men and women and are likely the result of improvements in treatment, specifically chemotherapy.

For more on education and screening for colorectal cancer (especially if you are over 50), and to read a survivor’s story, click here.

17 Mar 2009 Cross-Canada Run Update
Author: Gail |  Category: Haunted by Cancer, Linkage, Videoclips, Volunteering/Charity, Working Life  | 2 Comments

I look at this video and I can’t help but marvel at the lone figure running out into a cold, snowy road. It’s Wayne Cho out there in that world of white, a man who suffered from anxiety and depression most of his life but now manages it with the help of long-distance running. He has taken on the huge task of running across this vast country (SIX time zones!) to raise awareness and reduce the stigma for anxiety and depression … and inspire others along the way.

I wrote about Wayne six weeks ago while he was in Toronto, and he is currently in Manitoba. One of the kids Wayne spoke to Kenora, Ontario, last week wrote a comment (update: and now two) under that post to thank him.

I wasn’t able to meet Wayne when he was in town, but after I wrote that first post I pledged to give him my support during his run and I will continue to do so until he reaches his goal in BC. I think Wayne’s doing an enormous public service, and I applaud him for taking on such a commitment to a cause which is so personal to him. It’s been more than three years since I lost the love of my life to cancer, and not a day goes by without wishing I didn’t have to keep going forward and make goals without him. But I do, just like Wayne keeps running west and talking to people to fulfill his dream. I suppose the one thing we have in common (because it certainly isn’t running!) is a desire for a purposeful life, to strive toward something we really believe in. For Wayne, it’s running for mental health, and for me, it’s raising money for cancer research through photography.

I was thinking about it today when an email arrived, like a sign from above. It was from a prospective wedding client.

Wow. That’s all I can say.

10 Dec 2008 A Sign Of Hope
Author: Gail |  Category: Haunted by Cancer  | 4 Comments

AviatorDave

Next week will mark three years since David’s passing, and I’m going to write something more substantial at that time. For now, a small preview of some big news.

A life sciences company called CeMines that has been researching and developing methods for cancer detection recently signed an agreement with Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (a Johnson & Johnson Company) to license the Intellectual Property behind their blood test for early stage lung cancer.

In a press release dated December 8, 2008, the announcement of an agreement between CeMines and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics would take the science one major step further by bringing the cancer detection method to market.

An excerpt from the press release:

The CeMines blood test identifies patterns of antibodies generated by the body’s immune system in response to early stage lung cancer. Studies have shown that the presence and amplification of antibodies in the blood predicts lung cancer at an accuracy rate greater than that of other known methods. CeMines proprietary IP is the result of many years of internal investigation and innovation by CeMines scientists headed by Dr. Toomas Neuman, Ph.D.

The company presentation can be downloaded here. David’s photo is on Page 3. It’s a photo I took of him one day after the diagnosis, which we waited 72 hours for after his biopsy. Results from a biopsy are usually within 48 hours, but the doctors — who were expecting a diagnosis of perhaps lymphoma — were so shocked at the findings (small cell lung cancer) they sent the results back for further testing because David didn’t fit the profile for SCLC at all.

{ continue reading… }

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