Cancer survivor preparing for Quinte West Relay for Life

By Brock Butler and Ryan Peddigrew

Irene Rousselle, 53, is looking back on her own battle with cancer while looking forward to the Quinte West Relay for Life.

In 2012, Rousselle, who is from Caraquet, N.B., and is now living in Quinte, had her world turned upside down when she was told she had cancer.

“My daughter sent me to Kingston thinking there was something wrong. When I got there, I saw the doctor and he was almost 100 per cent sure that it was not cancer. They did tests and I went back to work and they said they would call me in a few days. When they called me, I was at work and they said ‘Irene, we have bad news,’ so right away I knew it was cancer,” says Rousselle of the day she was diagnosed.

She said her doctor was very supportive immediately following her diagnosis. She said despite the fear that she felt about her diagnosis, she knew she was lucky. Along with some kind words from her doctor, she took her fight head-on.

“You have a choice to sit down and cry and do nothing, or just get up and push yourself. Every day is a new day and you’re lucky that you’re still alive,” she says.

Rousselle says she told very few people of her diagnosis with the exceptions of a few close family members and friends until 2014. She works at Ecole Elementaire Catholique L’Envol, and says a student there had been diagnosed that year. Rousselle says this inspired her to organize a fundraiser and to cut 13 inches of her hair off, which finally revealed that she, too, had been fighting cancer.

The 2019 Quinte West Relay for Life event taking place this Saturday at Trenton High School will be Rousselle’s fourth consecutive year participating. She was a guest speaker at last year’s event, and will be walking in the survivor’s lap to kick off the relay this year. She says her favourite part of the event is the luminary ceremony, during which luminary bags designed in honour of who the participants are walking for are lit and placed around the track for everyone to see.

Rousselle has been in remission from her cancer for nearly a year.

Lola McMurter, a fundraising specialist and Relay for Life organizer for the Canadian Cancer Society in Quinte, says the process is a long one, but a worthwhile one.

McMurter says the planning and organization for an event like this Saturday’s starts months in advance, and relies heavily on volunteers and donations along with careful budgeting.

“We start in October and we meet with the committee. With an event like relay, we’re lucky we have a committee. For Quinte West, the committee is mostly military. It’s a large committee and there are several roles on the committee and several people in each role so we’re lucky that way but its a year-round job they work year round on this event and they’re dedicated and they’re hard-working,” says McMurter.

She says word of mouth is one of the most effective ways they’ve found to promote events and the collection of donations. They also run radio and television campaigns.

Despite all the late nights and long weeks, McMurter says the payoff really happens on event day when all the hard work comes to fruition.

“I think on event day, you just kind of sit back and watch it all unfold, and you think, ‘Wow, this is so amazing’ because there’s so much that goes into it and there’s so much work involved. We call this relay season because it’s absolutely crazy… Just knowing the event itself, why you’re doing it, why you’re raising money. You look at everybody that comes out to the event and they’re all there for the same reason.”

With last year’s event, she says they raised $62,000 of their $65,000 goal, a number they’re hoping to top this year. The event kicks off Saturday at noon and runs until 11 p.m., and will feature themed laps as well as a kid’s zone. There are 19 teams participating.

Donations are still being collected on the Quinte West Relay for Life Page.