Donna's Story
My brother Paul was a very bighearted man - he would give the shirt off his back to a stranger. He was a very kind person. His journey started in October of 2011, he had a sore throat and wasn't feeling well. The doctors gave him a blood test and he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Within an hour, he was in an ambulance to Halifax, and by that night he was on chemotherapy. Everything happened so fast it was hard for us to process. He was on treatment for 6 months and they went on the search for a stem cell donor. They found someone who was a close enough match, because they needed to do something. On April 4 2012, he had the stem cell transplant, and then he was 13 months cancer free. The cancer came back May 4, 2013 and he passed away May 14th. Through it all, he was very gracious. He fought very hard. He gave back big time to the patients he had met at the hospital. We had 13 months we didn't expect to have, so we were grateful for that.
Giving back made it a little easier to deal with everything that was happening. You don't focus on yourself, you focus on others. Giving back was always Paul's way, I guess we always carried part of him with us, and that's why we got involved with the walk because that's what he would have wanted.
Our first walk was in Halifax, it was a very powerful evening. It started off very sad, being in the Remembrance part of the walk.It was the realization that 'God we went through this' and he's not here anymore. As the night went on though, we got to see the crowd and how many lanterns were out there, when you see that it gives you hope, and that every journey will be different. You do your small part and it helps. It may save a life. The most powerful moment I think I've experienced in my life and the moment I realized why I was doing what I was doing was when I looked up and saw the lanterns of the patients in the hospital window.
For those of us who are mourning a loved one, the walk is a healing thing. I found it very healing for me. When we were asked to do Light The Night in Pictou, we worked hard at that and we were very proud of how Pictou County showed up and how generous they were. We would never have expected to raise $38,000. It was quite a night here, I was very proud of that!
