When Heidi passed away we collected money for a dream that Heidi hoped would one day come to life.
Heidi worked along side her peers, the InPower Breast Cancer Support group and Physio Therapists Tracy Gardikiotis and Jenna Leib to begin dreaming of creating a Rehabilitation Facility dovoted to the recovery and continued support of Breast Cancer patients. Heidi believed strongly in providing specific support towards those travelling from rural areas of our province as well as continued programming in the city.
Heidi and Tracy among many others put a lot of work in making up business plans and worked on gaining Provincial support towards the project. Unfortunately Life took over Heidi’s plans as well as some of the other ladies involved and the project took a bit of a halt. But Heidi continued to talk about the importance of such a place and we knew that in her honor it would be the best place to carry on her legacy. She’d often end a conversation of limited or frustrating resources with “and that’s why we need the centre”
Since Heidi passed we as a family have begun to work alongside the InPower group while they put in place ways to move forward with the project. This has meant things like Incorporating, Gaining Charitable Status and putting together plans and committees to begin our project. The InPower group began as a support group of patients with Breast Cancer Diagnosis specifically those who were in a younger demographic. It is run by a volunteer board and gains financial support through fundraising, donations and lots of volunteer hours from those who lend their time and skills. The woman who have created and continued this group are one of the largest Breast Cancer support groups across the entire country and the work they have put in to ensure patients have support, continued physio and exercise as well as peer support counselling is nothing short of amazing.
We are happy to announce that with the help of our financial donation this Spring InPower will host it’s first Rural Saskatchewan Retreat. This will be the first steps we take in reaching our goals to lend more support throughout our province and to work towards a much bigger goal of opening a Rehabilitation Facility.
The Retreats will be open to Breast Cancer patients who are at any point of diagnosis, recovery or stage. The focus will be on Physical and Mental Health and will be catered towards the patients, their families or support systems and the community hosting. Experts and Speakers will be there to lend support, advice and the new network will be left with the power to continue support via our website and connection pages.
We are excited to see Heidi’s dream at it’s baby steps and we all hope to honor her and her and so many others taken much to young legacy’s through these projects. And we all dream to one day step foot in the facility that she would be so proud to have been a part of. Most importantly we hope to help create a web of support across our province and country for all those affected by Breast Cancer and Cancer in general and gain better understanding, more empathy and stronger skills to lend the support needed when a diagnosis is delivered.
