“Close your eyes…” asks Mario C.
The group gathered around the two Marios in one of the tents in order to listen to their testimonies and that of Valérie and Anik.
They tell us how they had to pick up their life in a thousand pieces following the diagnosis of cancer. And the impact of the Foundation on their lives.
The Marios continue by telling the stories of their own lives and what led them to the creation of the On the Tip of the Toes Foundation, then the very genesis of the Double Défis des deux Mario.
“Don’t wait until it is too late, don’t wait the famous phone call announcing the death of your child” says Mario C referring to his own story.
“On tiptoe … for me means to rise above and see beyond the illness, with thoughtfulness…” explains Mario B.
“As on the Lake, we hope this will leave a trace inside and in turn, you will mark people around you…” The Mario message is clear: let us be agents of change in our own lives and those of others, here and now.
Lulled by this sharing filled with wisdom, the participants find the warmth of their sleeping bag.
The next day, participants wake up gently to the soft sound of Maxime’s harmonica. The night was good, and the participants’ faces seemed more rested than the day before.
All gather around the cooks for the last time, on the ice.
The departure for this last stretch is smooth and filled with good humour after taking the time to immortalize the moment in a group with my Nikon camera.
We quickly form a very close group and maintain the pace with strength. Time flies so quickly that soon see the arrival spot in the distance.
As we arrive, it’s party time. The euphoria there at the start of the challenge is back. We laugh, we dance, we sing, we weep softly.
It is both the end and the beginning of something great.
“In 5 days, I will celebrate my birthday of 4 years of remission … the Double Défi des deux Mario arrives at a crossroads in my life…” says Valérie, her eyes filled with tears.
My heart crumbles to pieces.
I know that there is still a year to go before she can finally reach the famous 5 years of remission, before finally breathing again.
Despite having crossed the Lake and braving the cold together, I will never really know what it is to weather the storm that cancer may have caused in one’s life and heart. I walk the last 50 metres with her to the reception at Pointe Taillon. I stay there, next to her and listen to our breath and the footsteps of the snow creaking under our skis and snowshoes.
I look at her eyes shining, and I see the tiny flame deep inside them which never stopped burning despite the harshness of life.
Back in the centre, I sit on my sleigh, my faithful companion on my last two crossings. I watch the lake one last time before joining the group.
A piece of bread in hand and a hot soup in the other, Anik says to me: “When the diagnosis of cancer fell, at the same time I had just found out that I was losing my job. I had started chemotherapy a few weeks before and I was in the aisle of a drugstore with my medication in my hands… I remember having collapsed in the aisle crying… I can still see the boxes of medicine scattered on the floor…”.
I have the image in my mind of the sweet and fragile Anik, in the middle of this alley, tried to keep all the pieces of his broken life in her hands…
My heart breaks again.
All the same, this day, she had no idea that in the same aisle, she was going to meet a precious friend with whom she shares her life today.
Which goes to show that life sometimes brings pleasant surprises.
At times, life may seem unfair and hard to us. Cancer is not a challenge we choose, it chooses us. In the most difficult moments of our lives, we sometimes forget that it is in adversity that we forge ourselves.
Anik and Valérie are living proof of this.
A difficult deadlock can ultimately be the place of the most amazing of inspirations.
Photos: Laura Ducharme
In pictures
