Earlier this summer, our donor Lynne walked away from the St. Catharines Site Breast Cancer Screening Centre and straight to the Niagara Health Foundation office to make a donation. “I have been getting mammograms for many years, and I am always grateful for the letters that remind me when I am due for one again. The first time something was flagged on a mammogram was around six years ago, then again four years ago, but both times the follow-up ultrasounds confirmed that there was nothing to be concerned about. When I went back for one this past May, however, they saw something that was different.”

Mitch calls it the “big C-word” and says that, much like everyone else, he doesn’t really like talking about it. He was diagnosed with cancer in the thick of the pandemic. “I’m not going to lie to you. It’s hard,” Mitch says when he talks about his battle.

The fear Kathryn Chayka felt when her daughter had to go to the emergency room in November 2021 was all too familiar. Her then three-year-old [...]