[2021-09-10] A penny a post
Terry Fox made it his mission to raise money for cancer research. His goal was to raise $1 for every Canadian. He lived to see that goal reached when, on February 1, 1980, the total funds raised by Terry's Marathon of Hope reached $24.17 million; at the time, Canada's population was 24.1 million.
That got me thinking about my own goal of raising funds for cancer research and support of people with ovarian cancer.
Yesterday marked my 400th post in Jenesis. I wasn't sure how to celebrate this milestone, but then I looked at the two t-shirts I had received this week: one for the Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope on Sunday, September 12 and the other for the Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research on Sunday, September 19. It made me think that if every Jenesis reader donated a penny a post, that would be $4.00 each. Multiplied across the several thousand readers following this blog, those small contributions by many people would add up.
Many people don't think about cancer unless they know someone who has been afflicted with the disease. I certainly didn't.
This week, I was asked whether I ever thought—as I was helping to raise funds for causes such as the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign—that I would one day be a recipient of services. The answer was no. Before my cancer diagnosis in 2020, I felt strong and healthy. I thought that I could work long hours on little sleep for months at a time and face few, if any, consequences. I felt invincible—a bit like a teenager.
And then I learned that I had cancer. The treatment I received—surgery, chemotherapy, genetic testing, medication—was informed by research, science and medicine, some of it perhaps funded by The Terry Fox Foundation. And I benefited directly from support from Ovarian Cancer Canada, thanks, in part, to the generosity of people who came before me.
My thanks to everyone who has contributed to my current and past fundraising efforts. Here are the links to my donation pages should you wish to contribute: Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope and the Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research.
The money that individuals contribute to these two organizations today will help someone in the future. That could be you or a loved one.
