One of the mums, Christine, (who we have not yet met) from the Oakville Ranger '97 group is in the midst of treatment for breast cancer. The entire Ranger group, four teams in total, representing our Oakville Rep Hockey program were encouraged to participate in the annual Run for the Cure.
It was a wet and cold morning. The boys didn't let it dampen their spirits!
They even got on stage and lead the crowd - over 6,000 participants - in cheers and the pre-race warm up. Some of us found it funny that the boys from Oakville were leading the participants in Burlington (the town next to us) on stage. Our boys enjoy the spotlight!
Poor Heather was cold and her sneakers were soaked through. As I'm sure was the case for many of the participants and spectators. We had a few good giggles while waiting for our team to come through the finish line!
Cole enjoyed the run and took it at a steady pace - no need to out-do anyone on his team. He ran with his buddy Kohler through most of the race and they made the most of 5km in the rain, joking and horsing around most of the way! (If you look really close at Cole's bib you'll see he was running for Christine and for my friend Elaine, who has also had a recent battle with breast cancer.)
It is such a worthy cause.
This just in, the photo that will be sent off to our local paper (thank goodness someone brought a camera with a wide angle - I'd give photo credit, but I don't know who took it):
As a family we are very fortunate [furiously knocking wood!] to not have been touched by this wrenching disease. Though Louis is a survivor of adrenal cancer in 1998 it is a record in my kids health files, not part of their every day. It is an uncomfortable conversation for most, but my kids are not afraid because they know their dad survived and my good friend Elaine has survived. I know we are very fortunate and I hope that message is being driven home when we discuss it with our kids.
Not everyone survives.
That is the reason for the run.
Wet and cold we called for Louis to drive in from Oakville to collect us (me, Cole, Heather, Matt and Ollie). It was actually a pretty smooth event with lots of laughs and lots of love.
Life is good. And as long as it's good we'll give back 100% when we can.
