The support that I have received for my fundraising has been simply overwhelming. I was able to raise over $9,000 last week for the Canadian Cancer Society. And this number will increase by approximately $5,000 as my firm offers a matching program for the donations made by my colleagues.

Yesterday was a perfect day for the run, and I had the perfect team running alongside me…my friends (and colleagues!) Roz (center) and Angela.

I typically race in the Half Marathon distance, but I will say that this 5K was the hardest race I have ever run…mainly because the second half was uphill!

For those of you who may think I am crazy (and yes, sometimes even I think I am crazy!), I am actually supposed to complete 30 minutes of exercise everyday. This is part of the healing and ongoing maintenance process for my body. Exercise gets my blood moving which does two things: it helps to distribute the chemo drugs throughout my body, and it also helps to prevent blood clots. Further to this, I recently had an appointment with my cardiologist who is conducting a research program on the effects of chemo on the heart in women diagnosed with breast cancer. He reinforced how important it is for me to continue to be active. He told me that in his experience, the women who were active both before and during chemo are the patients have typically had better results. So exercise is a win-win-win situation for me. Over the next few months I may not be able to run as fast or as far as I did pre-chemo, but I will definitely keep on running!

After yesterday’s race, I felt absolutely incredible. I was experiencing some pretty good endorphins! I’m so glad that I was able to not only make it to the race, but also complete it. One thing that is missing from my life right now is normalcy. Nothing is normal. Every day has a new challenge. So when I can do something that resembles my pre-cancer life, it really means the world to me.