Helping co-workers

In June 2010 I lost my mother to cancer. It was the most brutal experience I had ever gone through. Cancer took a very special person who spent her life finding the good in people and really did embrace life.
Inspired by my mother I decided to do a fund-raiser for my co-workers who are in tremendous battles against cancer. We are all city employees working for the City of Greater Sudbury.

One of these people started working for the City on the same day I did as a transit bus operator. His wife has lung and liver cancer. They are a young 47 years old and have one daughter. My friend has been off work for several months caring for his wife and ensuring that they live life to the fullest. We are not sure what the future will bring but we are doing what we can to support them in the moment.

Another co-worker is also a bus driver. This employee has throat cancer and has just recently had his voice box removed. He has been off work for several months and as he is a part-time employee he has no short term benefits. I have met with this employee and have had a great conversation using different methods like white boards and hand signals. He is in great spirits and is clearly ready to embrace life. He was extremely happy when I presented him with his fuck cancer bracelet. He loved what it represented and was wearing it proudly. He is also looking at returning to work in July. We can’t wait to have him back.

The last co-worker which I did fund-raising for has had to endure cancer which has attacked his son. It is a rare form of cancer which attacked the spine. They have had to travel to and from Toronto on a regular basis. This has had a significant impact on their financial situation as the father has had to take time away from work to care for his son. From what I understand the cancer has had an impact on the son’s ability to walk.

We hate to talk about a prognosis because it’s not always the best subject when talking about cancer. When my sister found this web site it gave us something we could use to say what we realy feel about cancer and how we want to approach life.

I hope the money raised with our event (which included the sale of bracelets) will make a little difference in the lives of the people we are trying to help.

The attached photo was taken at the fund-raiser and includes one of the people we were raising money for. He is the only man in the picture.