Almost four years ago, at the age of 35, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was challenging for me, my husband, Monte, and our children. Avi was three years old and Rebecca was nine months old. So many people helped us by calling or sending meals. L’Chaim Cancer Support Group for Jewish Women was one of the charities that helped us in so many ways.
Shawna Lovinsky Tator, middle row, second from left, and team coach Brenda Baskind, back row, far left, with the L’Chaim Cancer Support Group for Jewish Women team at the 2010 CIBC Run for the Cure
Almost four years ago, at the age of 35, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
It was challenging for me, my husband, Monte, and our children. Avi was
three years old and Rebecca was nine months old. So many people helped
us by calling or sending meals. L’Chaim Cancer Support Group for Jewish
Women was one of the charities that helped us in so many ways.
Elizabeth Erlich, co-founder of L’Chaim, paid me a visit shortly after my diagnosis. I received a generous welcome bag containing very useful information, such as where to buy wigs, support numbers to call, and where to buy a prosthesis and a mastectomy bra. There was a DVD featuring a talk by my oncologist, Ellen Warner of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and introductory notes from Elizabeth and Marci Tannenbaum, her fellow co-founder of L’Chaim.
Elizabeth also helped me beyond her capacity as head of L’Chaim. Although L’Chaim doesn’t provide child care services, her daughter Ilana, home from college, helped with my very young children. Ilana gave the kids dinner, tidied up and helped with bedtime routines. She spoke of her experiences as a child of a young mother with breast cancer. Her mother, Elizabeth, was doing so well, and that gave me hope.
In addition, L’Chaim set me up with a cancer buddy. My buddy, Devorah, was also diagnosed at the age of 35, and she also had young children at the time. She phoned me and visited me. She had a great sense of humour, and with her I remembered to smile and laugh. She understood and she supported me.
I attended and continue to attend monthly L’Chaim programs. They provide an opportunity to socialize with other Jewish women with cancer. We support each other and we have fun together. We remember to smile, to live, to laugh. Now, I am the cancer buddy of L’Chaim’s newest and youngest member. I am so happy to have the opportunity to give support to someone else. It feels good to give back.
Earlier this year, I attended L’Chaim’s community-wide cancer awareness evening, where I heard speaker Brenda Baskind, a L’Chaim member, cancer survivor and marathon runner. She was so inspiring. This past summer, Brenda sent out a letter offering to train L’Chaim members for the 2010 CIBC Run for the Cure, held on Oct. 3. I signed on. A group of us woke up early on Sunday mornings and met with Brenda and her husband, Colin. They encouraged us, helped us pace ourselves and ran alongside us. I really felt ready for the Run for the Cure, and when Elizabeth asked me to be team captain, I said yes. Little did I know that we would end up with 28 members on our team and that L’Chaim’s team would raise more than $11,000 for breast cancer research in the Run for the Cure.
We walked and we ran, and we were there together – survivors, sisters, daughters, friends and family. I felt enveloped once again, by the love and support of those around me. It meant so much to have my best friend, Annie, Elizabeth’s daughter, Leora (Ilana’s sister), my sisters, Reena and Debra, my daughter, Rebecca, now four and a half, Marci Tanenbaum’s son, Ari, daughter-in-law Naomi and grand-daughter. Also there were Colin, Brenda, and Stacey Baskind, who planted the seed to start it all – and whose running group will continue to train some of us for the Sporting Life 10-kilometre run in May. (New L’Chaim members are welcome to join!) So many friends were there, too: Naomi, Karen, Tara, Shari, Goldi, Chana her daughter, Rebecca, and her parents, Earl and Judy. They were all there, together, with me. May we all be healthy and well enough to do it again next year.
L’Chaim is a project of National Council of Jewish Women of Canada, Toronto section. L’Chaim’s confidential hotline is 416-630-0203.
