♪♪♫♫ If you go down to the woods today…

I saw the piece on Citytv with me last Friday night. It was pretty good I thought, even though the cameraman thought I was joking when I asked him to get on my ‘good side.’ The best part of the segment was when Verna Mai from Cancer Care Ontario stated on air that I should never have been denied a mammogram when I had a Doctor’s note; that everyone who has a suspicion is eligible to get a mammogram, regardless of their age. Her saying that vindicated my whole initiative on informing others what I went through in the early stages of my discovery. That is what I wanted out of it; for someone to say I shouldn’t have been turned away. And it was said on the 6 o’clock news. Thanks Citytv! You helped me accomplish that goal, and it didn’t take a long time to get that message out there. Mission: accomplished.

So, next!!! Now I’m on a roll! I’ve come up with a new fun initiative; I’m going to host a Teddy Bear Picnic to benefit the cancer ward at Sick Kid’s hospital. I remember being young and going to one at Harbourfront downtown Toronto with my Gran and my brother. I remember my teddy won a big blue 2nd place ribbon for the biggest bear contest. I still have that ribbon – and that bear! But I haven’t heard of such an event since I was young. I plan on changing that.

Not one to sit on my laurels, I’ve already rented out the park where I want to hold it (a huge venue that can accommodate hundreds), I’ve set the date (August 30th) and now it’s simply a matter of sponsorship and planning. Basically, the concept is as follows: families will come out for the day with their teddy bears to participate in a bunch of different activities, such as bouncy castles, inflatable slides, a dunk tank, relay races, egg/spoon races, 3-legged races, some carnival type games (think ring toss) and of course a barbeque with burgers, hot dogs, etc. and other treats, like a popcorn cart and sno-cone machine. There will be face-painting and crafts, as well as teddy bear judging contests, and an opportunity to purchase a bear for a child who is at Sick Kid’s, along with a card that they can make to send with the bear. It’ll possibly teach kids about giving back and sharing in a gentle, non-scary kind of way. My friend also suggested setting up a teddy bear clinic where kids can bring their bear for a check up, and maybe get a hole mended if needed. How cute! :D The charge will be nominal, but it’ll be enough to have a fun day and benefit the hospital. I’m pretty stoked about this as I do think we’ll see a huge turnout, especially with ‘the network’ getting involved. My sphere of influence is mostly personality type A, so I imagine this will be executed well and with a lot of support and help. I’m planning on contacting the Girl Guides association to see about getting a whole bunch of volunteers to help, in exchange for some type of merit/volunteer badge. I’m inviting the Big Brothers/Sisters clubs as well as other similar organizations. I’m currently talking to a party rental place to see about getting the inflatable equipment donated in exchange for sponsorship perks. I’m going to have a website created, and of course flyers and media press releases, all in due time. I have friends who know people too, so we’re now figuring out our game plan on who we’d like to get to sponsor the food aspect and all the other supplies we’ll need to pull this off. Firstly, I’m still awaiting approval from the City on my creative concept as there is so much red tape surrounding what you can and can’t do in a public park. Once I get that, it’s full speed ahead! Feel free to contact me at kellysjourney@yahoo.ca with any ideas you have or suggestions/contacts for sponsorship. I really do think this’ll be huge; I’m sure it’ll get press and I have no doubt it’ll turn into an annual event. I’ll also have a website built for this specifically. Get on board now! :D

My goal is to raise $10k for the hospital. If you wonder why I’m doing this for Sick Kid’s as opposed to Princess Margaret, I’ve mentioned here previously that SK is very close to my heart as my brother spent time there as a kid, and they were so good to him and my family. I’ve to date raised almost $5k for the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, so why not help out two great hospitals simultaneously right? I’m really excited about this as I know that it’ll be so much fun not only to plan it, but to see all the kids enjoying themselves, and knowing I helped with that. You can too, just contact me and let me know how you’d like to be involved. We’ll hold an event that will be so much fun for the community while helping out an amazing hospital, how great is that?!

The CityTV Phenomenon

Yet another example of the small world that is Scarborough. I received an email from Brian early last week. Brian and I went to high school together back in the day. He had received the link to this blog at the beginning of the year from a mutual friend Leigh Ann. He now works for Citytv as a videographer and was wondering if I’d be interested in shooting a segment for their website. He had read my blog and really felt that my story should ‘get out there,’ so I agreed to meet with him and a writer for the site, Suzanne. We decided on the Bluffs as it was a beautiful day and Shawn and I wanted to take Milo out for a walk.

We met and I was instantly put at ease by the both of them. Suzanne was really easy to talk to; I didn’t know how I’d be on camera, but I felt pretty relaxed while being filmed. I think I even got through the whole conversation without crying; amazing!

Check it out here:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_21468.aspx

If for any reason the video doesn’t play (it didn’t for me a few times) Brian also posted the video portion on You Tube, found here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HZBZf8wCZlY&feature=user


It went up this past Tuesday.

And then everything went crazy.

I ended up working from home that day as I felt like crap from a cold. I wasn’t exactly sure when the story would go up, so when I checked my email that morning, I had about 50 emails from people telling me about it, before I had even received the link from Suzanne!

Suzanne and Brian had both also emailed me and told me that the online story was already getting a lot of views, and that they had mentioned at a meeting that morning that they may be running a portion of it on TV as well.

Apparently this is of a lot of interest to a lot of people, and I guess it would be as again, cancer is something that does or will affect us all in some form or another, so I’m not really surprised by that.

The crazy part was the amount of people who emailed me with their stories. I heard from a lot of people who related to my mammogram ‘situation’ and I was inundated with stories and words of encouragement from others who were also told they were ‘too young’ for a mammogram. I heard from husbands of survivors, from relatives of people who had lost the battle and from people like myself; diagnosed at a young age. I’ve had offers of support from individuals, groups and networks. I’ve even received a few job offers, (but not yet one that can beat my current situation). I’ve been asked to speak at some events, I’ve been asked for advice, my opinion, my thoughts on x, etc. etc. To say this week has been a whirlwind would be a bit of an understatement. Even my company’s website, the one that was linked to the online article, was getting a ton of hits! I work in Franchise Development, so the official website for my company (for the curious) is http://www.wsicorporate.com; if you’re looking for an internet marketing business opportunity to get involved with, there ya go! :D

Laura DiBattista called me yesterday on my cell. She’s the resident health expert for Citytv. We arranged to meet this morning. I was a little nervous to do this interview. I mean, it was easy with Brian and Suzanne as I know Brian from high school and talking to Suzanne was more like talking to a friend as she’s super cool and immediately put me at ease. This one felt more, I dunno, more formal I guess.

Shawn and I were at home last night, TV on in the background, and he started laughing and called me into the living room “Kel, come check this out!” Thank goodness for PVR as he rewound the TV and there on my big screen is Mark Daly (another on air personality and the voice of City) talking about me! “Coming up tomorrow at 6, the fight for her life!” Sooo dramatic! Shawn and I immediately started cracking up, and there was even a clip of me playing with Milo. I mean, we always knew he’d be a star, just look at him! I’m awaiting the calls from Fido and Pedigree; that dog’s gonna make us millions! :D

Anyway, I had no idea I’d be on the news, I heard there was a chance, but that was I guess confirmation. They were looping it too as I kept getting calls/emails from people saying they just saw me on TV!

I went this morning and met with Laura. She was really easy to talk to as well, very engaging and genuinely interested in what I was saying, even off air. That was nice. We talked more about the whole mammogram experience and I even brought one of my xrays to show her. Another joke about the mammogram office is that after all I went through with them I decided I wanted a copy of my films to keep for myself. They had already lost one of my films, the only one of my left breast, the ‘healthy’ breast. I did not feel comfortable having the only physical evidence I ever even had cancer in the first place housed there. I also had to keep going there to sign the films out for the numerous appointments I’ve had over the past year, and for obvious reasons, I don’t like to spend time facing the woman who stood between me and the mammo in the first place. Anyway, they told me they’d send for a copy of the films, at a cost to me. Fine, call me when they’re in. Weeks passed without word from the office. I went by one day to inquire in person as I was in the area, and the receptionist informed me at that point that they wouldn’t be able to get me a copy; they no longer made copies for patients. It’s tragically comical at this point how mistreated I’ve been by them, but here we are again. I asked why they couldn’t have told me that and why I had to find this out by going to them, why couldn’t they have told me this when I first asked for a copy, or why didn’t they call me with this? Her response? It wasn’t me that you requested them through, it was the other receptionist. I glared at her (yes, Mammob*tch) for a few beats, then made an instant (and decidedly smart) decision. My reply: “No problem, but I do need to sign these out again as my radiologist needs to see them,” which was a blatant lie. I signed them out, and once they were back in my possession, I instantly felt at ease –and justified. I have absolutely no intention of ever returning them to that office, obviously. They don’t get to have my only proof of cancer, it’s simply not happening. I don’t think they have a case either as even though I had the images taken at that office, they’re of MY body, and I assume OHIP paid for the mammogram cost on my behalf, which means I, or the government, technically own the rights to them, does it not?

This was months ago anyway, they most likely don’t even know they’re gone as they’ve never called me to request them back. I wonder if they will now. *devious smirk*

So tonight, tune in to Citytv at 6 o’clock if you want to catch a glimpse of me, and please, as always, feel free to contact me at kellysjourney@yahoo.ca.

I’ll write some comments on the appearance over the weekend.

Oh and while I remember, I had an email from a lady who works in my building who saw the promo on CP24 and saw me yesterday driving away from work. In the email, she wanted to know what my license plate meant. I'm pretty sure she's a bit older, so I didn't really want to tell her, so I'm writing it here and if she reads this blog, she can find out. The idea came from the hood of ambulances. You know how they read "ecnalubma" so that it makes sense when they're on your bumper and you're reading it in your rearview. Well my license plate is based on that same theory. I suffer from mild road rage, so I decided to put a message on my license plate for all that cut me off, and my mind set is that when the offender checks out his rearview, he'll get an unspoken message from me, which saves me screaming inside my car and flippin' the bird. My license plate is "AMAMOY" ; - p