Contributed by Ed Robson – Brampton Walk Lead (pictured with volunteer, Katie Corbridge)
Now that the dust has settled from the walk, pun intended, we can catch our collective breath and reflect a little on our experiences. This entire project for me started when I attended my first walk in Toronto last year and met some of the folks from Bladder Cancer Canada (BCC), who apparently made a lasting impression on me! Being a bladder cancer survivor, I now had the bug to somehow help out. In discussions with my family, it was suggested I consider doing a walk in Brampton. After the initial euphoria of offering to do so and then being accepted, the reality of the daunting task ahead kicked in.
The Brampton walk was my first rodeo for something like this. I knew the hardest part of this venture for me would be tempering my expectations. I was consistently told “you need to get through one” before you know what to expect. With the help of the great folks at BCC, setting up the event itself was relatively simple. Their years of experience in doing this, the materials, conference calls and one-on-one support, reduced the enormity of the task I had felt in the beginning.
Well here I am, “through one”, and we exceeded our fundraising goal of $10,000 by 22%. One of the greatest benefits is the people you meet during the process. You will, without doubt, have your butt kicked, but also have your faith in the human race renewed. When we started, there was one family involved – mine. As a result of the walk, we are now a six-family team. A social night out is planned over the next several weeks to keep the juices flowing and do some brainstorming. I also learned by “getting through one”, that without corporate funding, donation numbers can be hard to drive up. This will be a major topic to discuss when we meet. The other focus will be the need to continually expand our team. We realize getting more and more people involved is the only way to gain the type of exposure required to make each year a larger success than the last.
All in all, this has been an incredibly rewarding experience and I believe all team members look forward to the challenge of increasing bladder cancer awareness and funds raised to support BCC’s mission.
If you’d like to learn more about leading a walk in your city, email BCC at info@bladdercancercanada.org
