A Preamble

After my wife died of cancer-related illness in 2007, I was not very interested in getting involved with anything connected to cancer.

Recently I started giving more thought to what it means to believe in a cause. That got me thinking to all the people I know who have been touched by cancer in one way or another. When you hear some of the stories you just get inspired and it lights a spark somewhere inside you.

There is a saying that people don’t invest in institutions, they invest in people and ideas they believe in. That’s how I felt when I decided to put together a University of Ottawa team for the Alterna Do It For Dad event on June 20. The honorary chair of the event is Allan Rock. I remember when I first heard Allan tell his personal story about prostate cancer. Suddenly, it was no longer the president of a university talking; it was a fellow human being sifting through the life-changing implications of having cancer.

I was asked to tell my story, but I don’t have cancer. Still, I feel that I have something to share. For ten years I was as close to cancer you can be without actually having it. I learned lots about myself, about what’s important and about what’s not and about what it means to be a caregiver.

And the journey continues…