Grand Falls-Windsor’s Laura Race and her family are honouring and celebrating the memories they shared with her husband and doing their part to “e-Race” brain tumours - one step at a time.
Her husband Michael Race, who was better known as Mike, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2002 at the age of 42.
“Our children were 12 and 17 years old at the time,” Laura says of Maria and Amanda.
“He had surgery and was treated with radiation. For many years it had been a watch-and-see approach and life was pretty ‘normal,’ until 14 years later when the tumour showed signs of regrowth. He then received various chemo treatments and another course of radiation. After 19 years of living with that cancer, he passed away in October of 2021.”
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The family has now entered a team into the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada’s 2022 Brain Tumour Walk.
“Our team, ‘e-RACE-ing Brain Tumours,’ is made up of my two daughters, their partners (Paul Butler and Adam Neid), and myself,” Laura says.
- To sponsor e-Race-ing Brain Tumours on their walk, visit their fundraising page.
“To celebrate the 19 years of memories we had as a family after Mike’s diagnosis in 2002, we are each planning on walking (or running) 19 kms over the weekend of June 17 to 19. I will be walking most of my kilometres on the Corduroy Brook Trails and welcome anyone and everyone to join me for any part of my walk.”
About the walk
According to the Brain Tumour Foundation (BTF) website, “The Brain Tumour Walk weekend is an opportunity to come together across Canada to celebrate and remember your heroes” with a united goal – to end brain tumours.
“No matter where you walk (or how you take your steps) you will be making a difference and this will surely be a weekend you’ll be saving lives.”
To accommodate different time zones, schedules and weather, the national 2022 Brain Tumour Walk will be held over the June 17 to 19 weekend and participants will be walking individually or as teams, across multiple days, or as a relay.
Although the Race family team is registered as part of the Paradise event, Team e-RACE-ing Brain Tumours will be walking/running in New Brunswick, Conception Bay South and in Grand Falls-Windsor.
This is Laura’s first year as a registered participant. Mike was a participant in 2018 in Paradise and she walked with him.
“Maria (and her friends) participated in 2019 when Mike wasn’t well enough to do the walk himself,” Laura adds.
This year’s team has been fundraising in person and online.
“And thanks to our very generous family and friends (we) are getting very close to reaching our goal” of $3,000, Laura says.
Money raised by the BTF goes to fund brain tumour research, support services, advocacy and information, Laura explains, adding she and Mike each had handbooks full of valuable information that were published and distributed free of charge to patients and caregivers.
The walk “emphasised the fact that people with brain tumours should never walk alone and builds on the community support for them and their families. It also reminds us of those people who are no longer walking with us. We felt it important to participate this year in Mike’s memory, but mostly in celebration of those 19 years of memories we were so fortunate to have had together as a family following his diagnosis.”
Laura will also be thinking of a dear friend in New Brunswick who is a brain cancer survivor.
“May is Brain Tumour Awareness Month and I encourage people to wear a grey ribbon,” she says. “Many people will remember Mike passing out grey ribbons during May and often using those ribbons to engage total strangers in conversation about brain tumours…frequently leading to them sharing their stories about a personal connection to brain cancer.”
According to the Brain Tumour Foundation website, every day 27 Canadians are diagnosed with a brain tumour, and an estimated 55,000 Canadians are surviving with it.
