If April showers bring May flowers, then local woman Lorraine Brown Aldrich is ahead of the curve.
All of April, Aldrich will be spearheading the Canadian Cancer Society’s daffodil campaign in Merritt.
The national campaign sees little yellow daffodil pins available for purchase at various businesses around town.
The money raised supports the Canadian Cancer Society’s research, awareness and prevention programs, as well as its financial support program for those who need help to afford treatment.
Aldrich accessed the financial support program in 2012 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I was laying on my couch watching TV, and I got an itch. I scratched it, and there was a lump. I thought I’d better go in and get it checked,” she said.
She said she was lucky because it was a small lump and she caught it early.
Living in Kingsgate — a community of just 400 people by the Idaho border — meant she had to travel the 80 or so kilometres northeast for her six rounds of chemotherapy in Cranbrook, then to Winfield where she stayed with her sister while undergoing a month of radiation.
Aldrich pinned a daffodil pin on the lapel of Merritt Mayor Neil Menard as she prepared to launch the month-long fundraising campaign for the Canadian Cancer Society in Merritt last weekend.
Emily Wessel/Herald
At the time, her husband wasn’t working and the Canadian Cancer Society programs helped her financially.
Without a place to stay close to the treatment centre, Aldrich said receiving treatment can be very expensive.
“If you’ve got to stay in a motel, it gets pretty costly,” she said.
Aldrich said she didn’t realize the variety of supports and resources the Canadian Cancer Society offers to clients until she got her diagnosis.
Of the five regions in the B.C. and Yukon division of the Canadian Cancer Society, the Southern Interior has the most people access the funding program.
Since September 2010, over 1,500 clients in B.C.’s Interior have accessed $700,000 in funding.
As well, the Canadian Cancer Society runs four lodges near cancer treatment centres throughout B.C. that patients can stay at for reasonable prices and which also provide meals.
“They were there if I had any questions, and very caring and I don’t think you could ask for a better bunch,” Aldrich said of Canadian Cancer Society employees. “Anything I needed to know, I’d phone them and they’d give me an answer for it.”
Aldrich said she was lucky she didn’t feel sick or even particularly tired after her treatments. She continued to work as a firefighter, which she had done since 2006.
“I didn’t want to give it up because I really enjoyed it, and I never had to. I just did my chemo treatments and carried on with my life as normal,” she said.
She said that matter-of-fact attitude was the same one she had when she was diagnosed.
“When my doctor asked me how I felt about it, I said it wasn’t going to get me because I wanted to be around long enough to drive my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren crazy,” she said.
Three years and 16 grandchildren later, Aldrich is cancer-free.
“My attitude is don’t be sorry, be positive,” she said.
Last Saturday, Aldrich had help from one of her grandchildren, 16-year-old Taylor Phillips, selling fresh daffodils at Cooper’s to raise money for the campaign.
This year marks Aldrich’s second year of running Merritt’s Daffodil Month campaign, which she does on top of volunteering at the food bank three days a week.
Last year, she also volunteered with Relay for Life, a 24-hour relay that benefits the Canadian Cancer Society.
“I’m not one to sit still,” she said.
Not sitting still is also the message Aldrich had for people about their health.
“There isn’t one person who can sit and say it isn’t ever going to happen to me. Well, you can say it all you want, but it doesn’t make it true,” she said. “Go get checked, and don’t be scared.”
