Breast cancer survivor Madena Reimer had always planned to enter a team in the Oct. 6 CIBC Run for the Cure at Sir Winston Churchill Square in Edmonton. It is the Reimer Warriors’ sixth year entering the run. Over the previous five years, the team raised nearly $50,000 to help find a cure for breast cancer, and Reimer was a spokeswoman for the run for the past two years.
As of six months ago, Reimer found even more reasons to run.
She had celebrated five years of being cancer-free in October 2012; shortly after, she discovered more lumps.
“Everyone says, ‘Oh, five years!’ Five years is the big date you’re supposed to make it to,” said Reimer.
She said it was cruel to find more lumps after such a jubilant anniversary.
“In the last 15 weeks, I’ve actually had two surgeries. I’ve had my other breast removed,” she said.
“So much goes with it,” she added. “Ugliness and swelling and pain and bloodwork and never feeling normal and endless appointments — and worrying.”
Because of her recent experiences, this year’s run is particularly prescient, and she has assembled one of her largest teams to date: 19 friends and family members, including Reimer’s husband, son and daughter, as well as three nieces who flew from Newfoundland to participate for the first time.
“To have them walking with me that day — it’s going to be a very emotional day.”
Reimer said the Edmonton run draws around 10,000 people each year, and seeing the sheer volume of survivors always makes for a moving occasion.
She points to one of her daughter’s friends, Amber Chrunyk, as being a particularly inspiring addition to the team who has raised $600 so far.
“I just though, ‘How sweet for a 17-year-old … for her to want to do that for me,” said Reimer, adding that Chrunyk is also running for her grandmother.
The Reimer Warriors typically raise around $9,000 each run; so far this year, Reimer said they have raised $6,500.
Reimer’s cancer-related charitable efforts extend beyond the Run for the Cure. She is well known throughout the region as the transportation coordinator for Road to Hope, a nonprofit that transports local cancer patients to treatments, often at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton.
She knows from her own experience that cancer patients need all the support they can get, especially as cancer takes a psychological and emotional toll in addition to the physical ravages.
“Cancer … just doesn’t end when you have your surgery,” said Reimer. “There’s always the fear.
“This is why we’re doing the run — to stop this evil disease.”
Reimer said she believes a cure will be found and that it is of paramount importance: according to the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, one in nine women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I’m just extra grateful to be able to do the walk, because I’m still here,” she said. “We are the power of pink.”
Anyone who would like to donate can go to www.runforthecure.com, click on the Edmonton event and then click on the Reimer Warriors or Madena Reimer herself. Reimer said she will arrange donations over the phone as well. She can be reached at 780-675-9232. Pledges will be accepted until the end of October.
