Last month was Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we did the CIBC Run for the Cure with my mom.

This was the second year walking with my mom, and this time it felt a little different

Last year my mom had just started chemo, and there was much uncertainty.

This year she walked with Chemo, radiation and a mastectomy behind her.

There’s still uncertainty but it’s uncertainty speckled with hope.

The pink survivor shirts had the word ‘Courage’ written on them, and there were a lot of pink shirts this year.

These events are just not about fund-raising for breast cancer research and awareness;

It brings survivors together, letting them know that they are not alone.

It was colder this year; we finished the long walk in 1:17mins – mom said it felt longer.

An older woman walking behind us said to her companion, “I give up; I’m so over breast cancer!”

That made me sad and wished it were that easy.

I thought about her recently while watching the NBC show Mercy, a doctor tells a patient;

“Cancer is terror, an unrelenting terror that we are at war with”

Halloween is also in October; the party shop on our walk route had this gruesome pink display.