Who’s Your Hero?

SavvyMom was honoured to have been asked to participate as a judge for Willow Breast Cancer Support and Abraxis Bioscience Canada’s annual My Hero Contest. Michelle Tice, our Vancouver SavvyMom on the ground, was on the panel and has shared her thoughts on the contest.
It seems fitting to end National Breast Cancer Awareness month with a look at how breast cancer impacts not only those fighting the disease, but the children who are closest to those patients. Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada together with Abraxis Bioscience Canada, Inc. teamed up again this year to create a forum for children between the ages of 8 and 12 years of age to tell their own story, a story of the breast cancer-fighting hero in their life.

The My Hero contest has been running for three years now and is a great way to give children affected by breast cancer a voice. Each child who enters writes a short story about their real-life super hero who is battling or who has battled breast cancer, and by sharing their personal stories, these children may also be helping other kids who are watching loved ones fight this disease.

I had the honour, on behalf of Savvy Mom, of being one of the national judges this year. Reading about the disease from a child’s perspective is incredibly humbling. Children are not yet tainted by the perceived unfairness in the world, and they have a way of making us see the hopeful side of life. These essays are no exception. Each child, whether writing about their mother, grandmother, aunt, teacher or family friend, all spoke of their favourite activities with their heroes, how they adapted these activities when their hero was ill and what they learned from watching someone close to them fight a deadly disease. In my mind, all of the essays I read were winners. It takes courage to write about something so personal and something that evokes sad memories. Each of these writers gave me pause for thought about my own life and my relationships with my children, too. Thank you to all the contest entrants for being so brave and so honest!

As we move into November, and put National Breast Cancer Awareness Month behind us, remember that this year more than 22,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in Canada, affecting their family, friends and of course, their children.