A North York mom has raised more than $250,000 over the last decade in support of finding a cure for women’s cancers.
Randy Mellon, 52, has taken part in the Shoppers Drug Mart Weekend to End Women’s Cancers every September since 2003. The walk benefits Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, funding women’s cancers research and treatment.
The mother of two first became involved with the walk to honour the life of her father, whom she lost to leukemia, as well as her surviving mother’s fight with breast cancer.
Last February, Mellon received her own breast cancer diagnosis. She had a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy at Princess Margaret and continues to receive chemotherapy at the centre.
It was during her time there that she saw for herself the product of the walk’s donations, including the survivors’ clinics, special dedications and banners of hope hung throughout the building.
Now a survivor herself, the experience galvanized her commitment to the work she had begun almost a decade ago when she founded Think Pink Direct, a website that sells custom rubber bracelets and gives the proceeds to the cause.
Mellon’s personal goal is to raise even more money, as well as to advocate the importance of early cancer detection checkups, which she said some women avoid due to physical discomfort.
“Early detection saves lives,” said Mellon. “Get mammograms. It saved my life and it saved my mother’s life.”
Mellon is determined to walk alongside her daughters at this year’s Walk to End Women’s Cancers scheduled for Sept. 7 at the Rogers Centre.