Next month sees the focus of my Step Forward fundraiser transition to the Riverside Health Foundation – Chemotherapy Unit.
Summarizing the impact cancer has on our world in 500 words would be like trying to review the entire Marvel Universe movie collection in a couple of paragraphs.
Cancer has such a universal reach that it’s practically unfathomable to any of us.
If I issued you a challenge to find one person whose life has not been touched by cancer in some way, it might make for its own Mission:Impossible screenplay.
Either you have had it, one or multiple relatives have had it, one or many of your friends have had it or at the very least, you know other people who have had it or have people in their lives that have had it.
Along with that far-reaching grasp that cancer has on this planet come a multitude of questions – none that possess simple answers.
Why have decades of research and literally billions of dollars of investment to find a cure yielded none so far?
Why are there so many people who still partake in actions that are scientifically proven to cause cancer (excessive smoking and drinking and failure to wear sunscreen, to name three)?
Why are companies allowed to continue spewing toxic waste in the air or dumping it in the water without appropriate punishment?
Why are those whose health deteriorates because of such corporate apathy forced to suffer consequences not of their own making?
Why does cancer claim people who were far better people than you or I?
Why did my grandmother, my father, my sister and several friends have to be saddled with this unforgiving illness that prematurely ended their time on Earth?
Why did your relatives or your friends or even you have to go through it?
Why does cancer get to win going up against someone as courageous and inspirational and good-hearted as Terry Fox, who battled it with everything he had for 143 days and 5,373 kilometres?
All these questions lie unanswered to this day.
But there are other questions, more uplifting questions, that also need to be asked.
Why does cancer research continue under the brilliant supervision of incredibly gifted medical minds?
Why do people from the earliest age to old age all over the world stare cancer in the eye and refuse to surrender to it quietly?
Why do children who experience the grip of cancer face it with a smile and a stout heart when they have every reason to curse their fate instead?
Why do we annually gather in our communities to run in Terry’s memory?
The answer, as Terry famously said, is to help others.
The answer is found in the name of the event he created – the Marathon of Hope.
It’s hope that keeps us believing that one day, someday, cancer will meet its match and we shall all get to claim victory over it.
It will be a day of celebration that will last a lifetime – everyone’s lifetime.
Steps taken this week: 101,801
Steps taken overall: 896,514
Money raised this week: $85
Money raised for Rainy River Victim District Services: $485
Money raised for the UNFC Food Bank: $1,500
Money raised overall: $1,985
Please go to my Facebook page entitled “Joey Payeur” and look for the Step Forward fundraiser post to donate. Thanks for all your support.
