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Help me in my battle against Breast Cancer
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| muzzybear |
If you can't attend my fundraiser, please donate online at
www.endcancer.ca and find my personal page (Caroline Grandini). (If every TranceAddict donated $10, just imagine what my thermometer would look like!)
Here's my story about why I'm walking 60k to end Breast Cancer:
Support my Journey for Aurora McLoughlin
The Weekend to End Breast Cancer is a two-day, 60-kilometre walk through the neighbourhoods of Toronto, taking place September 8-10, 2006.
Proceeds benefit Princess Margaret Hospital, funding important breast cancer research, education, services and care.
Aurora McLoughlin is the reason I'm walking. The first time I met her, she was moving into her apartment, the one right below mine. She had the biggest, friendliest dog that I had ever seen. And being the owner of a black lab cross named Chelsea myself, I gave her beautiful, large golden lab whose name was Chloe, a delicious doggie dentabone. Aurora was delighted because this gesture of friendship would help Chloe to feel comfortable and right at home. Her dog was so important to her.
We said hello to one another only briefly. The next time I saw her she was leaving our building in tears. Seeing anyone cry makes my heart feel like it’s being squeezed, and I couldn’t just let her go without asking if she was okay. Aurora explained that she was on this heart medication that made it difficult for her to go up and down the stairs. The heart condition, she said, was a result of the run of chemotherapy she had recently completed.
I knew, of course, that if anything is affecting your heart medically, it will affect your emotions too! The heart, after all, is the seat of emotion! She went slowly up the stairs, and I said, “That’s it. Let’s cheer you up then; we’ll take our dogs to the beach.” And we did. Aurora told me that she was an actress, and how she’d gotten cancer, that was now in remission. She was starting to put her life back together again. But her recovery time was short.
Aurora didn’t want people to know how sick she was again becoming. She swore me to silence, and made me promise her that if anyone came asking about her, I was to say that she was fine, but didn't want company. I only had to do this once. A very dear friend of Aurora’s dropped by to see her. “She’s well,” I told her, lying, “just asleep.” The truth was that Aurora had been admitted to the hospital for what would be the last time.
It was a great struggle to get her there. Aurora hadn’t walked in over a week. A friend of mine from the States who worked with people who had cancer told me that if Aurora wasn't walking, she probably had a tumor on her spine and needed treatment right away. Aurora’s mother had gotten the same information when she’d called her oncologist and she and Aurora’s aunts began worrying themselves sick. But Aurora, perhaps sensing something that none of us could know, decided to stay right where she was. I started buying her diapers and making her meals. Our neighbour, Jennifer, helped to walk her dog. I didn’t have my dog, Chelsea, to walk anymore because she had gotten cancer too, and had had to be put to sleep. I remember while Chelsea was still alive and Aurora was still walking, she’d come to let the dog out, and Chelsea wouldn’t move from her bed. I used to think she didn’t want to trouble Aurora with the walk.
I confronted Aurora with my friend’s information about the probable tumor on her spine, and encouraged her to go to the hospital. It was more of an argument than a persuasion for I wanted, needed her to get treatment so that she could get better and come back home again. Her family met her in Emergency right away, and on August 3rd, 2004 she was admitted to the Princess Margaret Cancer Hospital. Soon everything would be alright, or so we thought.
I would drop by the Princess Margaret Hospital with things she needed and wanted. She encouraged me to marry my Irish boyfriend and live a happy life, as she had married an Irishman herself. And then suddenly one day without warning she asked me not to come to the hospital for awhile. She’d started the chemotherapy she told me and wasn’t feeling very well.
My Irishman, Niall Jack and I were scheduled to be married October the 8th, a Friday, but on an impulse we decided to elope instead, and got married on October 6th. About 2:30 that afternoon, I stopped by the hospital to leave my bridal bouquet at the nursing station for Aurora. The next day, October 7th, Aurora’s mother called to tell me she had passed away just half an hour after the nurses brought my bouquet to her room. My best friend of the past two years had died on my wedding day. I will always believe that we eloped for Aurora, and that she waited to make sure I was looked after. I will never forget my special friend on our special day. And at her mother’s request, I now take care of Chloe, who reminds me everyday of our friendship. |
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| Theresa |
Wow hun, this is a powerful story. I am realy sorry to hear about your friend, and I hope this fundraiser goes off without a hitch.
I would be there myself if I wasn't going to be with my mom, *and if I had a way there*, but good luck to you and all that attend!!
((((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))) |
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| Estella |
| I smell another alt. |
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| Theresa |
| quote: | Originally posted by Estella
I smell another alt. |
She isn't an alt, she is one of our TOTA ladies. |
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| muzzybear |
| quote: | Originally posted by Estella
I smell another alt. |
Um, what's an "alt"? |
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| Estella |
| quote: | Originally posted by muzzybear
Um, what's an "alt"? |
A member who creates an alternate account.
I digress. My apologies :clown: & best of luck. |
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| muzzybear |
| quote: | Originally posted by Estella
A member who creates an alternate account.
I digress. My apologies :clown: & best of luck. |
Haha! That's funny! I'm straight up TOTA... now you can donate to my cause! (you don't get if you don't ask!) ;) |
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| Estella |
Are you kidding?
I've been living off value menu's and quarter rolls. |
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