Thank you for supporting Team Jill in the Super Bowl Challenge! Together we raised over $1000., whether you count in Canadian or American dollars! That is over $1000 that would not have been raised if Team Jill hadn’t taken action to raise lung cancer funds, and if some of you hadn’t taken action to give them. Thank you! Thank you also for your many encouraging words of support, the “likes”, retweets, shares, etc. This kind of support matters too! While writing this, another person gave $50. Thank you!

All together so far, the Super Bowl Challenge has raised over $77,000 USD. That is money that might not otherwise be raised for lung cancer. The SBC has ended, but you can still give until Feb. 3rd. Thank you Chris Draft and Team Draft for the work you put in to make the Super Bowl Challenge happen this year. What a great opportunity for cancer centres and other charities to raise funds and get huge publicity for the important work they are doing!

As the year-end draws near, I’m thankful for life and meds that help keep me healthy, thankful for all I was able to accomplish this past year. A lot of the work I’m doing is new for lung cancer. For example, I’m the first Canadian Cancer Trials Group lung site patient representative who has been affected by lung cancer. Before my oncologist asked me to sign up, Carol had been kindly representing lung cancer patients, even though her cancer experience was a different kind of cancer. We owe a debt of gratitude for the good lung cancer work being done by people not affected by it. Much lung cancer work has been left undone. Many groups are only starting to wrestle with how to include the patient voice. Some are not yet convinced of its value. Being the first in new territory is harder, like carving a path in the jungle. (My University degree in Engineering where I was sometimes the only woman in classes of a few hundred men, and summer work where there was no women’s washroom, helped prepare me for this, along with summer work tree planting and working as a surveyor – not in a jungle, but in all kinds of terrain in the Ottawa region.) I work, not just to do the work, but also to carve paths to (hopefully!) make it easier for others who will come after me.

There are a few interesting projects in the works, which may be announced soon. I’m also sharing my story at my hospital in January, and continuing with my usual volunteering as patient representative for the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, The International Lung Cancer Foundation, and at The Ottawa Hospital. Our monthly support group and outreach tables at the Cancer Centre will be ongoing as usual. Too many to list them all!

Here’s a great opportunity for anyone affected by lung cancer in the Ottawa area. Back in November, Dr. Dugald Seely, Founder and Director, Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre and Prof at uOttawa, set up a meeting with Andrea Redway and me. He wanted input from people with lung cancer experience as his team worked on developing a program for people affected by lung cancer. (He had also spoken at our summit in November.) So nice when others take the initiative for lung cancer. The free program starts January 23, and runs Thursday afternoons. Here’s the link for info and registration. Thank you, Dugald and OICC!

As 2019 draws to a close and we make the most of each last day that we are given of this decade, I have been doing a lot of reflecting. I may share some of it with you, but in case I don’t blog again before January, Happy New Year to you and yours! May the next decade be filled with love, joy, peace and thankfulness.