Wilf Brown
Mount Pearl NL
Canada
Brown Family
Wilf, my husband, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at Christmas and we spent the holidays in the hospital. We didn’t know what our story would be, we just had to put one foot in front of the other. It makes you realize just how strong you are.
We weren’t aware of how many people are affected by blood cancer. This has been an eye opening experience. Cancer changes your life, and the way you think about everything. Before cancer you take life for granted, but things can change in the blink of an eye.
Cancer brings families together. Everyone is loved, but you don’t realize how much until something like this happens.
We were reminded that there are such good people in the world and you can’t get through something like this without them. For example: Wilf’s hematologist- she was resolute in her care for him, we put our faith in her and that got us through; the resident on the night he was admitted-he took his time with us and made us feel assured; the social worker-Wilf said the first talk he had with her has stayed with him after all these years; neighbours-they cooked, cleared snow, and made sure we didn’t have to worry about anything at home.
We were inspired to join Light The Night thanks to Charles Esten. I had seen pictures of the Light The Night Walk he supports in the US and wished we had something like that here. When we first heard about Light The Night St. John’s we said “Wow, we have to do this”. We realized that wherever you can help you just have to do it, you don’t know what people are going through.
Light The Night means means victory-a time to reflect on where we were and where we are now. We can’t imagine not being part of Light The Night.
Light The Night is a wonderful cause, it has been so helpful for Wilf and others like him. We look forward to seeing everyone each year- the doctors and nurses, the survivors and their families. It’s also important for us to be there for the families of those who didn’t make it. Their loved ones fought a good fight and we need to celebrate their lives.
Light The Night brings us all to a better place.
- Tish