As we head into Breast Cancer Awareness Month (otherwise known as October!) I wanted to share an image that my friend Colleen sent to me last week. She said she saw the logo and immediately thought of me. This brought a smile to my face and reminded me, once again, of how lucky I am to have such amazing family and friends who are so incredibly supportive.

The image also made me think about how lucky I am to have been diagnosed with this particular form of cancer. It is because of the decades-worth of awareness, fundraising and research specifically for breast cancer that my prospects for survival are so good. Other forms of cancer, such as lung cancer, have nowhere near the same survival rate. To put this in perspective, the 5-year net survival rate for breast cancer is 87%. For lung cancer, it is 17%. Those numbers pretty much say it all. It is for this reason that I chose to fundraise last month on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society which supports adults and children afflicted with all cancers across the spectrum.

That said, this does not mean that I do not appreciate the efforts that are dedicated to a specific cancer. More than 80,000 people participated this morning in the CIBC Run for the Cure events across Canada. These events will raise approximately $17 million this year in support of breast cancer. Gord and I participated in the Toronto event, but I left all the fundraising to Gord this time…and he did a great job, raising over $2,000 in donations!

Today’s event had both runners and walkers, and as we were heading back to the car after the run, I stopped in front of Princess Margaret Hospital, a place where I spend a lot of time these days. I took a few photos of the thousands of people who took time out of their lives to participate in today’s event. It is because of people like them who have participated and raised funds over the last three decades that will allow me to bring that 87% survival rate even higher. All I can say is Thank You.