At 17, Deena Martin thought she had it all.
A budding artist headed toward a university basketball scholarship, Martin thought she was invincible.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Ten years later Martin has been cancer-free for a decade. But it took her almost that long to find perspective in her life. She realized it at the 2010 Relay For Life, the Canadian Cancer Society of Thunder Bay’s main fundraiser of the year.
She fully intends to be back again this summer, this time leading a team of her own in the 12-hour event, slated for June 17 at Fort William Historical Park.
“For me it’s going to be a monumental moment, to stand there 10 years as a survivor,” Martin said Friday morning, helping to launch the 2011 relay at the annual breakfast launch.
Martin, who had never even volunteered at a cancer-related event before attending last year, said she was only there for three hours, but what a powerful and emotional three hours it was.
“I went through an array of emotions that night. It changes you as a survivor to be walking around all the bags with the luminaries lit,” she said.
On one hand, she added, there’s a sense of guilt watching the flames flicker, each in memory of someone lost to the dreaded disease.
“Why am I here when those are not?” she said.
It also gave her a sense of what it means to be a survivor, a realization she came to late in the process.
“When you’re 17 you don’t really think about the severity of the disease. I realized that night just how serious it is and it inspired me to follow my dream again, which is to be an artist. Relay for Life tht night, it woke me up again and focused me in what’s important and what I need to do in my life,” said Martin, who has raised $13,000 toward the relay’s $185,000 goal.
“I think I owe it to myself and to those who lost their life to cancer to do what I can to stop this horrible disease.”
Event chairwoman Elizabeth Stafford, who lost her mother to cancer in 2008 and has been touched by the disease several times in the past decade, said the need to raise money for research funds and to cover costs of the 3,330 rides to treatment facilities given to cancer patients last year alone has never been greater.
With cancer cases expected to grow by 60 per cent over the next 20 years, and an average of 1,500 Canadians dying of some form of the disease every day, donations really can make a difference, she said.
Some of that $40 million in research is being funded by the Canadian Cancer Society is being done in her own backyard, Stafford added.
“A portion of this funding is going to 13 clinical trials right here in our city,” Stafford said, promising more entertainment at this year’s event, which will again feature the annual luminary walk, a relay and a night full of fun.
Mayor Keith Hobbs, who lost three friends to cancer and survived a scare of his own last summer when a biopsy came back negative, issued a challenge to city residents.
“I actually did 60 laps last year, so I’m going to challenge everyone to do 60 laps this year,” said Hobbs, whose 2011 relay team will be known as the Hillbillies for Hope.
“If this old fart can do it, anyone can."
For more information, contact the Canadian Cancer Society at 344-5433.
A budding artist headed toward a university basketball scholarship, Martin thought she was invincible.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Ten years later Martin has been cancer-free for a decade. But it took her almost that long to find perspective in her life. She realized it at the 2010 Relay For Life, the Canadian Cancer Society of Thunder Bay’s main fundraiser of the year.
She fully intends to be back again this summer, this time leading a team of her own in the 12-hour event, slated for June 17 at Fort William Historical Park.
“For me it’s going to be a monumental moment, to stand there 10 years as a survivor,” Martin said Friday morning, helping to launch the 2011 relay at the annual breakfast launch.
Martin, who had never even volunteered at a cancer-related event before attending last year, said she was only there for three hours, but what a powerful and emotional three hours it was.
“I went through an array of emotions that night. It changes you as a survivor to be walking around all the bags with the luminaries lit,” she said.
On one hand, she added, there’s a sense of guilt watching the flames flicker, each in memory of someone lost to the dreaded disease.
“Why am I here when those are not?” she said.
It also gave her a sense of what it means to be a survivor, a realization she came to late in the process.
“When you’re 17 you don’t really think about the severity of the disease. I realized that night just how serious it is and it inspired me to follow my dream again, which is to be an artist. Relay for Life tht night, it woke me up again and focused me in what’s important and what I need to do in my life,” said Martin, who has raised $13,000 toward the relay’s $185,000 goal.
“I think I owe it to myself and to those who lost their life to cancer to do what I can to stop this horrible disease.”
Event chairwoman Elizabeth Stafford, who lost her mother to cancer in 2008 and has been touched by the disease several times in the past decade, said the need to raise money for research funds and to cover costs of the 3,330 rides to treatment facilities given to cancer patients last year alone has never been greater.
With cancer cases expected to grow by 60 per cent over the next 20 years, and an average of 1,500 Canadians dying of some form of the disease every day, donations really can make a difference, she said.
Some of that $40 million in research is being funded by the Canadian Cancer Society is being done in her own backyard, Stafford added.
“A portion of this funding is going to 13 clinical trials right here in our city,” Stafford said, promising more entertainment at this year’s event, which will again feature the annual luminary walk, a relay and a night full of fun.
Mayor Keith Hobbs, who lost three friends to cancer and survived a scare of his own last summer when a biopsy came back negative, issued a challenge to city residents.
“I actually did 60 laps last year, so I’m going to challenge everyone to do 60 laps this year,” said Hobbs, whose 2011 relay team will be known as the Hillbillies for Hope.
“If this old fart can do it, anyone can."
For more information, contact the Canadian Cancer Society at 344-5433.
