Our
Reason
Love on the Brain has been created in honour of our beloved matriarch's memory. She loved to dance, loved to plan dinner dance events, and was the life of the party. We would like to honour her in a way we know she would love. Our mother was such a giving, generous, wonderful woman. She had such a zest for life and dedicated so much of her time to family, friends, and taking part in setting up/hosting events. She wore many hats, but the most important roles she played were loving mother and grandmother. She always provided our family with unconditional love, each and every day. We hope to continue her legacy with this initiative and annual events.
In May of 2021, our lives had changed forever; the matriarch of our family was diagnosed with a brain tumor at just 59 years old. Within a few weeks of this discovery, we had been given the news we did not want to hear; stage 4 brain cancer. Her official diagnosis was Glioblastoma (GB), an extremely aggressive and malignant brain tumour. It is considered to be incurable cancer and has a devastatingly low life expectancy of
up to 18 short months.
Similar to any brain injury, this tumour had deeply impacted our mother's ability to do everyday tasks that were once second nature. The left side of her body had become non-functional. The summer of 2021 was filled with many doctors’ appointments, a resection surgery, 42 days of radiation, and the start of chemotherapy. Treatment typically involves surgery to safely remove as much of the tumour as possible. Unfortunately, the diffuse nature of glioblastoma means that some tumour cells will always be left behind and continue to grow. For this reason, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are typically the next stages of treatment.
After twenty months, we had realized that even after surgery, radiation, 17 months of aggressive chemotherapy, and a few rounds of immunotherapy, her prognosis had gotten worse and her health started to decline. At 22 months, her exceedingly difficult battle had come to an end at the very young age of 61. She was in the 5% of patients who surpassed the 18-month life expectancy mark.
Research into new treatments, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapies is ongoing and these treatments may offer hope for improved outcomes in the future, however; at present, the same treatment has been used for decades. There is no known cure for Glioblastoma. We are hoping that through the Love on the Brain Initiative, with your support, we can raise the very necessary funds each year that will be utilized by The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada. These funds will be put towards brain tumour/cancer research, an area that is significantly underfunded.