Celebrating Ruth Garrett Taking Action, The Gilda’s Club

Ruth Garrett has spent most of her adult life in the field of transformation and change, both personal and working with others, individually and within organizations.

She is an author of five books on subjects such as resilience, creating the life you desire, emotional intelligence, self-discovery and having effective difficult conversations.

Her work in self-leadership, emotional intelligence, resilience, conflict resolution and positive psychology enables individuals to passionately and enthusiastically engage in creating authentic, purposeful goals — then making those goals a reality.

Ruth has dedicated her life to the belief that “There is nothing missing,Ruth Garrett we are all brilliant just the way we are. Our job is to recognize that brilliance and realize it in the world.”

She is an empathetic, pragmatic and inspiring international coach, mentor, agent for change and educator facilitating individual and organizational transition and change in places such as: Canada, the UK, France, Egypt, China and Nigeria.

Walking long distances isn’t new to Ruth. In 2006 she walked 760k along the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain, to raise money and awareness for the plight of women and children being trafficked in the sex trade.

Today Ruth walks for Cancer.

Almost everyone in Canada has been affected by cancer. As many as 1 in 3 Canadians are living with a diagnosis of cancer; cancer also deeply impacts their family members and friends. Our medical system is getting better at finding cancers, and treatments are improving all the time. But people soon realise the medical system has little room to provide emotional and social support for people with cancer and their families and others who care for them.

For many people in central and southern Ontario, the place to turn to for emotional support during a cancer journey is Gilda’s Club. The comprehensive emotional support program at Gilda’s Club is free to any men, women, teens and children living with cancer along with their family and friends.

The program at Gilda’s Club is based on research and led by professionals. Here people find emotional support and information about living with cancer. The program also supports people in managing their own life issues, like talking about cancer to your employer, or your children. People can choose to participate in support groups, workshops, social support events, activities and celebrations.

Donations from individuals and businesses keep the program open and expanding for the thousands of people in central and southern Ontario who are diagnosed with cancer each year. Gilda’s Club does not receive any direct ongoing government funding.
Founded in 1995 in New York City in honour of the late comedian Gilda Radner, Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto and Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka welcome people with cancer, their family members, and friends, of all ages, into a warm and welcoming community.

About The Walk

The Impetus: Friday September 13, 2013

Beginning to climb the stairs of Princess Margaret Hospital, heading to their cancer clinic, my gut wrenched anticipating the worst. Memories grabbed like pinchers sucking dry any false sense of bravado I’d summoned over the years, months, days, hours and minutes before this moment.

These were the same stairs my Mother had climbed time and time again throughout her unsuccessful journey towards wellness. A journey I swore I’d never take. She died of breast cancer. Yet here I was, entering the same portal of wretched uncertainty she’d been consumed by thirty years previous. Each unexplored macabre recollection of her struggle, long since abandoned to churn in the solar plexus of my dread, lashed out, debilitating the swagger of my own steps. Here I was. I’d failed miserably.

On that initial visit my oncologist confirmed I did indeed have a stage 3 cancerous growth in my ovaries. Yes, I would need to have my reproductive organs removed, urgently. No, they weren’t sure if the cancer had spread to other organs. Yes, that would be ascertained during the surgery, to take place within the next two weeks. I would be in the hospital about three days. I’d have a scar from pelvis to belly button and beyond.

Walking out the hospital doors and up University Avenue to the subway I knew my life had been irrevocably altered forever. I had been given big a wake-up call.

As I put distance between myself and Princess Margaret Hospital I was optimistic. I was going to use this experience as an opportunity to uncover the unresolved patterns of thoughts and feelings which had led to the creation of this dis-ease in my body. Uncovering any unhealthy patterns would be the first step in no longer having to harbour them at a cellular level. Once these patterns were disbursed the true purity of life could flow freely within me.

On that day I decided I didn’t need to fight the cancerous growth. I needed to work with it to unravel any and all emotional scars propagating its existence. I also knew my life could never be the same again.

So began my six-month journey of struggle, love, faith and healing.

Fast forward to January 1st, 2015

Winston Churchill is quoted as once saying:

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

I have been given back my life. As I write this I’m cancer free and feel incredibly blessed. And now it’s my chance and privilege to give back.

The walk

I will be walking just over 500 kilometers with the goal of raising at least $50,000 for Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto and Gilda’s Club Simcoe-Muskoka.

Gilda’s sole purpose is to support individuals, emotionally and spiritually, who are traversing the path I did in 2013-2014.

This is my attempt to give back.

DONATE HERE TORONTO

Stage One: 233 km. from Collingwood Ontario to the Victoria Hospital of the London Health Sciences Centre, where they have the London Regional Cancer Program. DONATE HERE – MUSKOKA

Stage Two: 189 km. to the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.

Final Stage: 100 km. to the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre is located in the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie, Ontario.

If you wish to become a sponsor, please CLICK HERE.