CALGARY HONOURED HERO
Rewind with me to 2011; my friends and I had just graduated from Henry Wise Wood High School. Goodbyes were said, plans were being made, and sweet dreams of the future filled every conversation. Who we would become, who we would meet, and where we were going (I don’t think any of us had a clue). I took a year off before planning to go to university. Like many others, I used this time to “find myself” and figure out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. I figured the best way to do this was, obviously, to party, never miss a wing night, and skip rocks on the Glenmore Reservoir. Needless to say, I didn’t learn a whole lot more than I already knew. That was, until the summer of 2012.
I started work as a camp counsellor at Our Lady Queen of Peace Ranch in Bragg Creek. This was outside my comfort zone, but a best friend convinced me to go, so I did. Anyone who has worked at a summer camp would agree that the combination of exhausting work, close quarters living, and endless amounts of fun is the ultimate recipe for personal growth. I learned a lot about myself over those two short months. The summer was ending and I was at an all-time high. I had made new friends, was in the best shape of my life, and had decided that I wanted to be a paramedic. It was the day after summer camp came to a close that I met another new face – cancer, in the form of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Unlike many, many others - I was extremely privileged when I was diagnosed with cancer August 30th 2012. I was the happiest I had ever been, I was able to experience every last minute of a life-changing summer, and I had the most amazing support group of friends and family (shout-out to the best mom ever!) In fact, the only thing I didn’t have was romance in my life. I remember praying one night in September, just me and my beeping (always beeping...) machines at the Tom Baker (?). I prayed (for a long time) for the chance to experience romance. Over the next month I had many friends and family visit. One of those visitors – a co-counselor from camp, visited more often than most. With not much else to do, we spent endless hours talking in the hospital. From there our love for one another blossomed and come November we were in a relationship. My prayer was answered – and once again cancer could not interrupt me from enjoying my beautiful life.
Come December, the doctors decided it would be best if I receive a stem cell transplant. Just like any interesting movie, my story went from a high note to some very low ones. Compared to the well-received chemo I was on before - the transplant kicked my ass, and I finally experienced some of those not-so-fun side-effects I had heard so much about. Eventually I was discharged from the hospital in May 2013. Although I would be leaving the hospital not recognizing the face looking back at me in the mirror, I would be leaving cancer-free.
Now, years later I am happily married to the girl I met at summer camp and spent countless hours chatting with in the hospital. We are expecting our first baby in September 2020! Life is like it was that summer of 2012, happy and filled with dreams of the future – what kind of father will I be, who will I become? I often think about my cancer journey, and how lucky I am to be where I am today. I think about those faced with cancer who did not get the chance that I did. Those whose dreams will be stolen from them, who will never experience their ‘becoming’ moment, and who will never get to marry the girl of their dreams.
This is why I walk. I walk because I know that one day, through effort and dedication, we will find a cure that will work for ALL of us and not just some.
