Weekend To End Breast Cancer 60K Walk
September 10-12, 2004
THANK YOU from the Dream Girls Team. From left to right: Corrie, Kelly, Genevieve, Andrea, Lorraine, me, Marianne, Annette and Julie L in front.
Walk report from Julie...
Date: Wed Sep 22, 2004
Subject: My thoughts on the Weekend to End Breast Cancer
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
— George CarlinThey say a photo has 1000 words. I think this photo tells it all. This was taken at the end of the 60km walk just before the closing ceremonies. Our team including my Wednesday night walking group raised over $100,000.00 in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, the event itself broke last year's record, raising over $14.7 million towards research, key diagnostic equipment, survivorship clinic and most of all HOPE that a cure for breast cancer WILL be found!
I wanted to take this opportunity to THANK YOU each of you for all your support.
This past year has been incredible and each of you has truly touched my heart. Whether you made a donation, attended a fundraiser, sent an encouraging email, or trained with me, you have made a difference. I feel so fortunate to have each of you as a member of my support system, not once have you questioned what we were doing and your early support enabled us to focus on training, which as you know was my personal goal for this years walk.
I can't tell you how good it feels to have taken part in something that means so much to so many, including myself. Several times throughout the day while walking I got goose bumps. In my heart, I knew it was each of you walking along side us. At one of the stoplights we asked 1 of the motorcycle crew if it was going to rain. He told me that he spoke to our angels and they were predicting a beautiful weekend. They were right. It was a glorious weekend, we couldn’t have asked for better.
I have been trying to think of a way to adequately describe this weekend and to paint a picture so that you can understand how your support really has changed the world. You often hear people say ‘it was a life changing experience’ but what does that mean?
Picture this… More than 6,000 walkers, volunteers, crew, staff and spectators lined the route. When the sun came up over the Princes' Gates; the walk began. You could feel the excitement in the air. After months of training & fundraising the weekend was finally here! It was remarkable really. The news said there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen. You could feel HOPE in the air as we linked arms to walk. Along the route we sang, we laughed and cried together as stories were told, we clapped and encouraged each other like we've known each other all of our lives. It was incredible!
What was the weekend like?
Try to imagine your street corner or the street that you work on. Now imagine strangers standing on street corners stopping & applauding you, and women rolling down their car windows to holler, "Thank you!" and knowing that you have affected them so deeply. To walk by Princess Margaret Hospital and say, "Good morning" with such pride & true intention, directly to the patients standing outside in their housecoats, with their IV's at their side, who are also clapping their hands & cheering you on, inspirational things like this don’t happen every day.
Honestly, there wasn't a city block that didn't have somebody thanking us, or cheering us on, or honking their horns & giving us all the thumbs up.
When we got into the more residential areas of the walk, there were people sitting on their porches, or dancing on their lawns with their children, and beautiful pink ribbons tied to trees, and tables set up outside of homes with fresh and cold bottles of water, cookies, juice, etc. for us, with signs all along the way telling us to "Keep up the great work” or "Keep hydrated" or "You're All Heroes" etc. You’ll see some of these in the photos below.
Our friend Wendy…
Just after lunch on the second day our friend Wendy called.
I should give you a little background… I met Wendy in June at one of the walks I was leading. A few weeks later Wendy waited behind to talk to me. She wanted to tell me that she got her tests back and she had Breast Cancer. At that moment one of my worst fears were realized, one of us had breast cancer. I always knew in the back of my mind that this could happen. The stats were against us but I secretly hoped that they were wrong. During this time Wendy continued to train with us. Her spirit and courage inspired me on a weekly basis. In late August, Wendy learned that her surgery was scheduled for Friday Sept 10. This was Day 1 of our adventure. There was no way that she could walk with us. As you can imagine she was disappointed. I was disappointed but I didn’t want her to know that. We quickly listed all the positives and came to the realization that this was the best date possible, she would have the support & positive energy of 1000’s of men and women doing something BOLD against Breast Cancer. The night before her surgery a group of 20, so or us went to dinner. It was a celebration of all we had accomplished. During dinner I made a brief toast and we dedicated the walk to WendyJ for the first time since I learned of her cancer I saw joy and peace in her eyes.
Okay back to the weekend.
You can imagine that our thoughts were with her all weekend. On Saturday afternoon my phone stopped working. I kept thinking that Wendy would try to call and not get through. I was hoping she would know that our thoughts were with her. On Sunday morning Julie Lynn got my phone to start working. I’m not sure what she did but I thought she had performed a miracle! When Wendy called Sunday afternoon, we were elated!!! She assured us let that her surgery went well. She also wanted us to know that she was with us all the way. She was in great spirits and cheered us on. I think that was one of the highest points of the weekend.
Around 5kms from the end Karl, Geoff and my training friends Dawn and Katrina were waiting for us. They had been waiting for almost 2 hours by this point. After many phone calls back and forth we were close to meeting up with them. When we hit the lakeshore Karl called. I asked him to start walking toward us; I thought we would miss him. I didn’t expect for him to catch up so soon. This was one of the most emotional parts of the walk. For 55km complete strangers were cheering us on, it was fantastic but when you see some of the most important people in your life waiting for you, it’s difficult to explain. As soon as I saw Karl I screamed, “stop!” I needed my friends to stop, but at that moment I couldn’t remember a single name;) I wanted all of them to meet Karl & Geoff. I also knew our friends Dawn and Katrina were close by. Well, it was quite comical, to say the least. I wanted my friends to stop but my screaming “stop!” caused at least 50 walkers to stop. As I gave Karl a hug, I realized we had an audience and when one of the walkers asked if this was the hug line, I burst into giggles LOL.
This gave us the final boost that we needed to finish. After a brief visit and a few drinks we were on our way. I couldn’t believe how strong I felt. Those last few km’s felt effortless, I could’ve run to the finish line. (Geoff quickly reminded me that, that wasn’t one of my brightest ideas;))
The final stretch of the route took us along the waterfront. This was where we held the training walks so we were well prepared. Around 1 km from the finish we stopped to watch the dragon boat race. The athletes looked so strong. Only later did I discover that the racers were raising money for Breast Cancer Research.
Before we knew it we were at the Finish Line. This was by far the most emotional part of the weekend for me. Each of the walkers that had finished before us were waiting to greet us. Their family & friends, and all the volunteers joined them. Imagine a group so large that they lined the last 400meters, many people deep.
Our group linked arms and started the walk. It took us almost 10 minutes to reach the end. Once again not a dry eye was to be seen. The photo at the top of this email was taken once we made it through the line. It’s my favourite photo of the bunch and you know me I took a ton of photos. Each of us has such a look of complete joy and accomplishment on our faces. It was the perfect way to end the most amazing weekend of my life.
I hope I have given you a glimpse into what this weekend meant to each of us. This weekend confirmed that together we truly CAN make a difference. If we continue to work together, we WILL change the world! I look forward to the day when our world is cancer free. One step at a time we will get there!
With love and friendship,
Julie
p.s. YES we are ready to do this again. We have formed a new team. Look for upcoming newsletters from our new team Double Scoop! Let me know if you are interested in joining us.
Walk report from Marcella in Sault Ste. Marie...
Date: Wed Sep 15, 2004
Subject: The Weekend to End Breast CancerWell, I'm back from T.O. and the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. What a weekend!
I was completely surprised on Saturday that I was able to walk the 33km after only sleeping for around a 1/2 hour (couldn't sleep). The chiropractors and massage therapists at the camp were amazing and really helped me out with my back (shoulder injury/scar tissue) problems.
I had a fabulous time on Sunday. Liesha and I walk at the same pace and we were really enjoying the scenery and chatting quite a bit. The highlight of the day had to be when Liesha, Maggie and myself were enjoying ourselves at the Sunnyside cafe, cheering for and recruiting other passengers to join us at the cafe. Liesha forgot to mention that we not only had a great view of the lake and beach, but we also had a great view of these glorious guys playing volleyball on the beach, with their shirts off of course, since it was so warm! Hee hee!
We also saw a dragonboat race in action just before the end of our walk which was really neat. I also enjoyed watching Jim walk hand in hand with Maggie into the EX. He was waiting at the finish line for a couple of hours while we were enjoying ourselves at the cafe, but Maggie did tell him that we were stopping for refreshments. I guess he didn't figure that we'd be stopping for that long of a time!
The other amazing thing I noticed about this walk is that the recovery time from walking long distance is amazing! Although I was still quite tired on Monday after the walk, my legs and feet felt absolutely fine. I even went for a 4km run on Tuesday morning! Tomorrow, I'll start
training on hills at Hiawatha highlands with Wendy, the coach of a high school cross country running team. Saturday, I'm hiking at Pancake Bay, then will do the Terry Fox 5km run on Sunday (leisurely pace).I'm also looking forward to the DisneyWorld 1/2 marathon in January where I'll get to visit with Maggie and Jim once again!
Bye for now,
Marcella in Sault Ste. Marie
Julie, John B and Kelly at the Thursday dinner
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