Well, just about the end of week three!  9 more radiations and 2 more chemos and I still have my hair although it isn't looking so good!  Very dry and wiry!  Look like a stuck my finger in an electric socket!  Every day's a bad hair day!  Kind of makes you think it might be good if it did fall out.

Yesterday I was rambling on people who have inspired and taught me along the way...I continue to reflect on that and have many amazing people who have set examples of courage and determination which I believe lays the foundation for me to try to do the same.  As most of you know I have been hugely involved in the Terry Fox Run for the past 15 years.  Some of you, however, may not be aware of the story of how this came to be and it is actually quite a good one.  When I first arrived at Ranchlands School back in 1997, the first thing that was handed to me was a box labelled "Terry Fox Run" with the instruction that the admin expected me to organize the run for the school within the first two weeks of school.  Frankly I was stunned, having never even attempted organizing such an event.  I pretty much threw it together, talked it up with the students (at that time the school population was close to 600 kids)  We raised $1000 that year and I thought that was fantastic!  For the next couple of years we continued on the same trend, raising between one and two thousand dollars.  Then around year five we had an earth shattering event for the school.  One of our Grade 5 students, a lovely student named Jacqueline was diagnosed with a very rare form of leukemia.  She was in treatment for over a year missing her entire grade 5 year of school.  She was a very sick kid and there were fears she may not make it.  That year the school rallied and we raised over $5000 in support of Jacqueline.  I remember her coming to our run the following September with no hair and looking quite frail.  Her good friend Emily shaved her head that year and raised $500 in support of Jacqueline.  Despite a long and difficult treatment regime with many side effects Jacqueline recovered.  Last year she got married and is now the picture of health! She is a living example of why the funds we raise for these causes are so important!  A few years later one of our young teachers, Colleen Jurgens decided she would like to shave her head if the kids could beat their $5000 record, not a hard thing to do really when Colleen herself raised over $2000 for the cause.  I was busy talking it up, talking it up....(you know how I do love to talk) and the kids became curious that if I was that enthusiastic about Colleen shaving her head why didn't I shave mine?  Well, to make a long story short a few of us told them that if they could raise over $10.000 we would do it.  The good news was they had less than a week to make that happen.  Those of us who had put forth that promise were pretty confidant our locks were safe.  What we failed to think about was our conniving secretary Bernice.  Bernice got busy emailing and by Friday we were at the $13,000 mark.  Head shave day came and seven ladies and one male principal gave up their hair in front of the entire school population.  I wore a hat for two weeks before Bill reminded me that the kids had paid for that haircut and they had a right to see it  Once I got used to going hatless I started to enjoy my new do although it did draw many stares.  I didn't have to comb my hair for almost 6 months, washing it was a breeze....but it was slow to return.  The following year I had students who decided they wanted to shave their heads too.  This seemed like a good idea and we decided that in order for a student to participate they had to of course have parental approval and needed to raise a minimum of $200 to show their commitment and seriousness.  The first year we shaved student heads we also decided to present an award to the student who most exemplified the spirit of Terry Fox.  Bill donated this plaque to the school and it has become a tradition each fall to name one student who most exemplifies the spirit of Terry Fox.  Those qualities included commitment, dedication, kindness and determination.  We have run the head shave for several years now and despite a shrinking school population have raised up to $23,000 in a given year.  We have been recognized by the Terry Fox Foundation as one of the top schools in Canada for our fundraising efforts (to date we have raised over $150,000 for this worthwhile organization.  We were honoured with visits from both Betty Fox, Terry's mother and Fred Fox his brother.  The children at my school view Terry Fox as a hero and they enthusiastically embrace this event each and every year.  I am so proud of their efforts and generosity!  I have no doubt that they will carry this spirit of giving into their adult lives.  They are amazing kids and I do miss them!

This is a bit of a random entry but one I wanted to share with you as many of you are now throwing your support behind my son Geoff and his team of riders who will be doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer in June.  We are very touched by your generosity and cannot thank you enough for your ongoing support!