30 years of horizon

I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015, during my final year of high school — which meant cancer took away the end of my adolescence and robbed me of a sense of independence that’s so important at that age. During my chemo treatments, I had a hard time walking and sometimes had to use a walker or wheelchair to get around. At the end of treatment, if you had asked me to go rafting and portaging in the middle of nowhere, I would’ve said NO.

In 2015, just one week after finishing treatment, I took part in the expedition on the Poisson Blanc Reservoir. It gave me a bit more confidence in my abilities — even if I didn’t fully grasp the therapeutic impact of the experience at the time.

When Catherine contacted me about the Magpie expedition in the summer of 2016, I remember hesitating… Would I really be capable of such a long and intense expedition? But I listened to that little voice inside telling me to take the opportunity.

The Magpie was, at the time, a huge expedition to celebrate the foundation’s 20th anniversary. A lot of people were involved, and in some ways, it was intimidating! In my mind, a “normal person” couldn’t just go off on that kind of adventure without experience — and yet, here we were, sending 15 young people in remission straight into the rapids!

I was barely 18, and now at 26, looking back — now as a mom to a little boy — I feel so proud. I proved to myself that I could step out of my comfort zone, but more than that, I learned to say YES to things that seem impossible. That experience taught me to trust life, to seize the opportunities that come my way. I’m so glad I did it, because today, I welcome new experiences with open arms. Nature has remained such a powerful source of renewal for me. I may not go rafting on the Magpie every year, but I make sure to go camping, hiking — we’ve even done canoe-camping as a family!

I believe an organization like this deserves to be known and seen. Therapeutic adventures, healing through nature — it’s incredibly powerful. The proof? Almost 10 years later, I still talk about it all the time, to my friends and to people I meet. I want to give back to show my gratitude to you, but also to show the world how vital it is to keep these organizations alive — because they give power back to young people who think they’ve lost everything, when in fact, they have everything to gain.