I’m not sure if I was just sheltered as a child, or if our world was really that sweet and safe, but I do know that when I was young people seemed to live long, and my life was rarely touched by disease and suffering.

Unfortunately, this lack of experience caused me difficulty later on in life, when I finally realized that these things DO happen, and not just to OTHER people.

I remember back in the mid 90’s when I had my first “real” job as part of the YWCA Health and Wellness Team. As a community of health professionals, we came together each year to lead our volunteers in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure and provided the warm up for thousands of others out at the event.

It was my first experience with a community that was fighting back against something, and I was touched and empowered.

There was a sea of pink in front of me as we stood on the stage. While we were running in the event we passed sign after sign that shared WHO these people were running for.

That’s when it hit me.

My sign said something like “the future” or “my children’s future,” but the signs to my left and right were real names, of real people.

“My Auntie June died 1989”

“My sister. Sleep well, Jenny”

“Me”.

It was an intimate experience with a disease I had underestimated.

Years later I would be on the other end of the phone, having a chat with a friend, catching up on all things in life as mothers do. And then I would fall silent as she told me she had breast cancer and was going in for a double mastectomy in two weeks.

I remember exactly where I was sitting. I remember the weather of the day. I remember I was pregnant with my third. And I remember not knowing what to say.

Whether you have been touched by breast cancer directly or indirectly or have not yet been intimate with it, it is still a community disease. It is our friends, our sisters, our cousins, and our mothers. It is our children’s teachers or the bank teller. It is something that WILL touch you one day, and that is why it is important we recognize it now.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure is on Sunday, October 2, 2016, in 63 communities across Canada. As a community event, this is your chance to really SEE the reach of breast cancer across your community. To understand its effect on the people that are your neighbours. A chance for you to register to attend the event, with your friends, your children, and your family, and understand the impact it has made and why it needs YOU to stand against it.

And even more importantly, CIBC Run for the Cure wants you to make your campaign personal. You can create a personalized digital fundraising campaign that will help you raise money for the event and honour YOUR connection to breast cancer, and show why this event matters to YOU.

Just one person can make a difference, so now is your chance to be a change maker and positively impact the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation with YOUR words. It’s a great opportunity to put ourselves in the middle of the issue, so we can understand how close this cause actually is to us.

Sign up to the CIBC Run for the Cure TODAY, to participate in an event close to you on October 2nd, and make lasting change for the community around you.

This post has been brought to you by the CIBC Run for the Cure, but the images and opinions are my own.