The colour pink has taken on a lot of meaning over the past two years for Stacy MacWilliams of O’Leary.
MacWilliams was 35-years-old, raising her one- and three-year-old daughters, Kari-Lee and Kalyn, along with her husband Rodney, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2009.
Two years later, MacWilliams has had two lumpectomies to remove the tumour, six rounds of chemotherapy, 29 rounds of radiation and has been on the drug Tamoxifen for two years with three left in the treatment.
“I can’t stress the importance of early detection enough,” said MacWilliams, this year’s honourary chair of the Charlottetown Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. “It saved my life.”
MacWilliams told her story to the roughly 900 supporters of the run at Confederation Landing Park Sunday.
A pounding rain didn’t stop runners from supporting the struggle against breast cancer, with the day seeing about $183,000 raised for the cause. The number is nearly $10,000 more than last year’s $175,000 total.
Co-chair Leone Dixon added that donations are still coming in and that any fundraisers who didn’t make the event Sunday can still turn in money at the Queen and Grafton Street CIBC branch.
Run for the Cure is the largest, single day volunteer led national event to support breast cancer research.
Participants clad in pink, soaking wet and clutching umbrellas made their way to the starting line by Founders Hall, focused on the one or five-km treks they were about to take.
“Cancer doesn’t take a break and we’re not going to let anything slow us down, are we?” said Dixon, to loud cheers from the crowd.
In its 15th year in Charlottetown, Run for the Cure has attracted the young and old, those affected by breast cancer and some who aren’t.
Matthew Lewellyn, a Grade 7 Stone Park Intermediate student and major supporter of the run, sounded the starting horn.
While breast cancer hasn’t affected Lewellyn’s own family, the young man has been tireless in his efforts to support the cause.
He’s spent many Sundays during the past four years collecting donations door-to-door, sometimes putting in seven hours a day.
“I thought of doing barbecues or other kinds of events, but going out myself is the easiest way to do it,” said Lewellyn. “One day, I was able to raise about $650 just going around to people’s houses.”
During his first three years, Lewellyn raised more than $4,500 for the cause.
Setting this year’s goal at $2,000, Lewellyn didn’t just reach the target but surpassed it with more than $2,400.
While he doesn’t raise the money for recognition or popularity, Lewellyn said he believes more young people should fundraise.
“People should do it (fundraise) or at least try to do it to help a cause and to help other people.”
The first few months of MacWilliam’s diagnosis was made easier by the support of family and friends.
Life-long friend Mary Ellen Rennie decided to support MacWilliams by assembling a team for the 2009 Run for the Cure.
“Stacy’s Arsenal” came together to help fight the disease threatening MacWilliams. While the team began as a couple of friends, it quickly turned into a group of more than 40 raising about $9,600 for the 2009 run, which was held just two weeks after MacWilliams finished her chemotherapy.
She completed the entire five km walk, much to the cheers of her husband, family and friends at the finish line.
In 2010, the group raised just more than $15,000, with that number having slightly increased this year.
The original small team has grown into a movement across the country, with “Stacy’s Arsenal” running as a national team in events in the Niagara Region of Ont., captained by MacWilliam’s friend Shelley Grffin, and in Regina, led by another friend Denice Hrynowetsky.
For MacWilliams, the Run for the Cure gives her hope for her own daughters’ futures.
“I am hopeful that my girls will grow up without knowing what chemotherapy, radiation and lumpectomies are,” she said. “I look forward to the future and I’m confident together, we will find a cure for breast cancer.
