Alta Munroe still recalls the time her son Carlton interviewed his idol Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip.
On Saturday, she marched in Relay for Life as part of the Carlton’s Crew team in honour of her son, who recently passed away from the same brain cancer that claimed his idol.
“I guess they both followed the same path,” said Munroe as she walked through the streets of New Glasgow.
Last year, Carlton walked alongside his mother, but he lost his struggle with cancer soon after.
When asked what she would say to her son, Munroe’s response was simple.
“We’re all thinking about you,” she said. “It’s hard to think of him gone.”
Also on the march was Bill Colbourne, who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer five years ago.
“I’ve had two operations and an unsuccessful bout with chemo,” said Colbourne.
But he is still fighting on regardless.
For Colbourne, being at Relay for Life was a chance for him to connect with fellow survivors who truly understood the struggles faced by cancer patients.
This includes a seemingly endless and tense wait for test results, severe nausea brought on by chemotherapy drugs, undergoing surgery and radiation therapy and confronting one’s own mortality.
“You’re not just an army of one anymore. You have a big family that’s fighting it and that means everything to me and that’s why I’m here every year,” said Colbourne.
He was one of 176 participants in 27 teams at this year’s Relay for Life, an increase from last year, say organizers.
After the Relay for Life victory lap and march through town by survivors and their supporters, participants lit luminaries. These are paper bags with a candle inside honouring the memory of a loved one who died from cancer, a patient with the disease or a survivor.
Cancer remains the leading cause of death in Canada, but survival rates are ticking upwards as new treatments and therapies are introduced to help patients.
Between 1992-94 and 2006-08, survival rates increased from 53 per cent to 60 per cent, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.
