THUNDER BAY – Natacha Ruberto was just 29 years old when brain cancer cut her life short in December 2012.
A mother-of-two with a lifetime ahead of her, she never got the chance to see her children grow up and they were deprived of her love and guidance.
But her legacy lives on.
Her mother Joanne and cousin Jackie decided to do something to both create awareness of brain cancer and help find a cure for the disease, which doesn’t get the publicity that other forms of cancer get in the media.
Borrowing from the Movember concept, they created Jan-U-Hairy, a campaign that encourages women to stop shaving their legs during the year’s first month, collecting pledges to put away their razors. Men can also participate, collecting pledges and then shaving their legs at month’s end.
“I wanted to put my energies toward something positive instead of saying it’s been a year and (going through) the Christmas doldrums,” Joanna said on Friday, launching this year’s independent campaign at the Barton Street offices of the Canadian Cancer Society.
“So we decided that the ladies would let the hair grow on their legs and collect money for brain cancer research.”
About 13 people took part in the inaugural year, and last year they raised about $8,000.
While Jan-U-Hairy isn’t the charity’s largest fundraiser of the year, smaller, self-driven campaigns have a huge impact, said Maria Cabral, the Northwestern Region director at the Canadian Cancer Society.
“We call them independent fundraising campaigns because people come to us with an idea. Everyone’s got a cancer story. Everyone’s been affected by cancer. These are the most meaningful, when someone turns a tragedy, the death of a loved family member into an event to raise funds and awareness for other people,” Cabral said.
This year’s Jan-U-Hairy goal has been set at $10,000.
For more information on how to participate, visit the Jan-U-Hairy Facebook page.
