Jake Romphf
Becky Wellington has been involved with Sarnia’s Relay for Life in various ways for more than a decade, but will experience a first at this year’s event.
She’ll walk the Survivors’ Victory Lap on June 15 following a yearlong drive to be cancer free.
“I thought I’d probably die of cancer at some point but I didn’t expect to be diagnosed with breast cancer at 61,” said Wellington, who lost her mother and many of her 13 aunts and uncles to the disease.
“You think it’s going to be everybody else, and you’re going to help everybody else.”
Relay for Life features teams walking a track at Clearwater Park for six to 12 hours to raise money for cancer research, with at least one team member walking at all times.
Wellington first got involved in 2006 through her job at Lambton Public Health, where she worked to prevent tobacco use among youth.
She also walked the track several times and put together a team to honour another family member, who lost a five-year battle with cancer.
When she received her own diagnosis of breast cancer on June 17, 2017 she felt detached, she said.
“You think you know your body and everything about yourself.”
She also felt helpless, and wondered if she could have done more to prevent it.
The day she found the lump she visited a doctor and things moved very quickly.
She intended to maintain her lifestyle and work during treatment. “I didn’t want anything to change, I cut my own grass, I take care of myself.”
Instead, she struggled through seven months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and radiation treatments.
What helped her through was the support of friends and family and the “beauty of having people around,” she said.
Friends drove her to every radiation appointment in London, which she never attended alone.
“They just wanted to help. All those little things you do for people that nobody thinks they notice — they notice,” she said.
“I’m cancer free, I’m going to get my hair back, I’m going to go back to work, and I’m going to live my life.”
Wellington said knows people sometimes grow weary of annual fundraising events, or believe they’ve given enough.
But Relay for Life is important because of the money it raises to critical cancer research,” she said.
“It saves people like me, and it could save you.”
The Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life takes place at Clearwater Arena Park, 1400 Wellington St., on June 15, from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Register online, or for more call Paula at 519-332-0042.