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#BrookeRamsay @BrookesDonkeys

#BrookeRamsay @BrookesDonkeys
#BrookeRamsay @BrookesDonkeys

Brooke Ramsay was our daughter, our granddaughter, our sister, our niece, our cousin, our best friend, our teacher, our therapist, our party animal, and our comedian. This past summer she was taken from us after a courageous 16 month fight with brain cancer at the age of 24. In the short time that Brooke lived with cancer she led her friends and family in a team called "Brooke's Donkeys" in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Brooke was ambitious, she set the goal of a new national fundraising record for the event and to our surprise we succeeded with over $80,345 received in donations.

When my best friend and roommate at university was diagnosed with sarcoma of the brain in May of 2010 we were hopeful that she could beat her cancer. However, after several relapses it was realized that due to the rarity of her cancer, and a lack of research into sarcoma, there was little that could be done to save her life. From that point on our group of friends and family banned together and registered as a team in the Brighton Relay for Life and began fundraising for our team to walk for 12 hours at a local school in an effort to put more funds towards brain tumor research. Since Brooke had suffered a serious brain hemorrhage she had difficulty connecting her words with images, so when she first connected the word "donkey" with an image of a donkey, we instantly knew that the name of our team would be "Brooke's Donkeys". The outcome of our efforts was astounding; our team raised a national record of over $80,000 in online donations, $30,000 of which was donated directly to Princess Margaret Hospital, a Canadian leader in cancer research and the location of Brooke's radiation therapy. Only a month after the relay Brooke succumbed to her cancer surrounded by her loving team and family. The Canadian Cancer Society was so inspired by our ambition and Brooke's inspirational attitude that we received formal recognition for our efforts this past November at the Relay for Life Awards. To keep Brooke's legacy alive the donkeys and myself have already begun to fundraise for next year’s relay in hopes of once again beating the national record set by our own team.

 

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