Fighting Because They No Longer Can
Thursday, October 18, 2012
By: Jenny Thistle

As a seventeen year old, I wasn't ready to lose my mom. Relay gives me hope that not every family will have to endure the suffering that we did.

When I was just 15 years old my mom, my best friend, was diagnosed with Stage III Colorectal Cancer. So full of spirit and life, she was a forty-three year old woman with so much to offer the world with her bright smile and kind words. She couldn't have been a better mother to my sister and I, she was border-line perfection. I began to relay as a team captain to help her along with her fight.

She went through extensive treatment for two full years, but tragically passed away when I was seventeen. She had lost her long and strenuous battle, but I couldn't give up. She never did.

Only a mere year later, my mom's mother, was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, and only three months later passed away when I had just turned nineteen. This time, I was so tempted to give up hope. Why did my family have to endure this pain all over again? A mother and a grandmother, a sister and a mother, a daughter and a wife? It took awhile, but I built up the strength that I had inherited from the both of them, and when I went to University at UNB, I knew I had to do something to push the fight.

I went to the head office, and am now in progress of starting a brand new Relay for Life event at the University of New Brunswick as Chair for 2013.

I started this relay because I want to prevent any family to have to endure the pain and suffering that we did these past years. My mom and my grandmother didn't make it, but there are thousands of people battling right now that need our help.

The Relay for Life is my way of fighting for my mom and nan when they no longer can. They fought hard and strong, now it’s my turn.