My paternal grandmother, Gladys, was diagnosed with breast cancer the same month my mother discovered she was pregnant with me in 1979. At the time, it was considered unlikely that she would be around long enough to see her first grandchild born. But, armed with a tremendous will to live, she underwent a radical mastectomy, and embarked on a series of clinical trials, most notably for a then little-known drug called Tamoxifen.

Lesley and Grandma Gladys, circa 1985

At the time, I was a baby, and too little to understand the significance of the Tamoxifen trials, and the effect and hope it was having – not just on my grandmother, but on thousands of women. I would later learn that it was this drug, and the subsequent clinical trial, that helped to keep her alive throughout my childhood.

Now, nearly 30 years after breast cancer first rocked my family, it is still a nationwide crisis. In 2009, an estimated 22,700 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women, with one in nine women expected to develop breast cancer during her lifetime.
While my grandmother was never cancer free, she fought the disease, and lived post-diagnosis for 17 courageous years. When she passed away in 1996, she left us all feeling lucky to have known her, and more determined than ever to keep fighting.

This year, I will be running the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure in Glady’s memory.

Help us continue to fight this disease, and to find the course of treatment that will finally eradicate breast cancer. My goal is to raise $1,700 : One hundred dollars for each of the years my grandmother courageously fought the disease. To contribute, click here to visit my donation page.

No donation amount is too small – every little bit helps.