The women’s rugby team organized a 10 kilometre team run in support of breast cancer awareness on Saturday which helped them reach their 1,200 km goal for the month of October.
An average of 75 women across Canada are diagnosed with breast cancer every day according to the Canadian Cancer Society. For the team, raising awareness for the society was personal.
The goal was originally an individual one set by women’s rugby player Taylor Reid. Reid’s mother, Caroline Jean, has been dealing with breast cancer since 2018 and was officially diagnosed in 2019. Reid set a goal of 120 km for herself based on the size of the 15 cm by 8 cm tumor her mother had removed.
Reid’s teammates decided to join in on Reid’s challenge, which resulted in the team raising the goal to 1,200 km. Reid’s teammate Rachel Getz, who helped organize Saturday’s run, said Reid inspired the team to help.
“She let her mom know that she had a personal running goal, and basically all of us got behind her and really wanted to help her,” Getz said.
She added that players have been running as a team every Saturday and on their own to make sure they’d hit their goal.
Women’s rugby head coach Dave Luong also joined the team in the run with his wife and team physician, Dr. Lindsay Bradley, as well as their daughter. He said he was happy to see his team come together to support each other for a good cause. He added that it goes to show the family culture the team has established.
Reid said the support she received from her teammates has been overwhelming.
“Last year my mom was diagnosed and it was my first year [with the team], and I kind of took a step back from being social,” she said. “Now this year has brought me so much closer to all of my teammates … I put myself in a vulnerable position and they took me in right away.”
Not only was Reid running with her rugby family, her mother also joined them for the run Saturday. Jean at first tried to tell them she couldn’t do it, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Midweek, the whole team showed up at her house and told Jean they wanted her to participate. “Alright,” she said. “I’m going to be there, I’m in.”
She added that it was nice to be active and to have so much support during a stressful period of life. Prior to her diagnosis, Jean had always been an active person but her illness made a major impact on her mobility.
Reid said seeing her mom finish the run with them, on a bike, made her very proud.
“Four months ago, my mom got an infection and I’ve never seen her that weak or that sick before,” Reid said. “I’m incredibly proud of her for biking it and bringing back that energy. I feel like my mom’s back and we’re crawling, but we’re crawling together.”
Although Jean has been dealing with cancer since 2018, her cancer wasn’t diagnosed by a surgeon until October 2019. After many tests and surgery, her cancer was classified as stage three.
After more tests, doctors discovered Jean’s cancer was metastatic, which meant it had spread to other parts of her body. For Jean, it was her vertebrae. This upgraded her diagnosis to stage four cancer.
There is no cure for stage four cancer, so Jean has to take medication for the rest of her life, which sometimes causes difficult side-effects. However, she doesn’t want to let her cancer bring her down.
“I want to just be happy. Coming here getting all this energy, I just want to live my best life ever,” she said. “Whatever I have left, I just want to be as happy as possible.”
She also said she wants to bring awareness for everyone to get checked if they feel a lump or something unusual in their breast. Jean was originally told by doctors for almost a year that she was fine and the lump wasn’t something to be concerned about.
Reid said nobody knows their body better than themselves and they don’t want people to hesitate to get checked if something doesn’t seem right.
“We just want to bring out awareness, it’s not about getting pity, I just want women to feel comfortable in their skin,” Jean said. “If they decide to do reconstructive surgery, if they decide to go flat, just to enjoy whatever life you have and to be positive.”
Feature Image by: Timothy Austen
