Fight to End Cancer - FTEC2018

Guilty… “Who is calling me in the middle of the night?!” is my initial reaction as my alarm goes off at 5:25 a.m. on a Sunday morning.  Oh, wait.  Right.  That’s my alarm.  We have our official photoshoot for FTEC today and the girls need to be at the Old Mill for 6:30 a.m. sharp!  I had loaded up my car the night before.  Lots to bring. Dress, shoes, jewellery, multiple outfit changes, etc.  I get out of bed as quietly as possible – don’t want to wake anyone up.  Get ready to go and just as I am walking out the door (at 6am) I hear a tearful voice “Mommy…mommy!” and see my daughter, Abby, stumbling down the hall, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.  She is crying and doesn’t want me to go.  My eyes start to well up.  I hug and kiss her, say I love you and tell her to go back to bed.  She gets more upset and doesn’t want me to close the door.  I lean in for 2 more hugs/kisses, close the door and sign to her through the window in the door “I love you”.  Ugh.  My heart breaks as

Fight Camp and Starting Sparring Classes Recently the team was asked to share their feelings about Fight Camp that we attended a few weeks back.  Fight Camp was a one-day training experience where we learned everything from basic punches, to footwork, to actually doing a bit of light sparring (tapping each other on the head).  It was a full day which also included conditioning.  I felt good about it!  I left feeling like I had learned a lot and couldn’t wait to put it to use and start sparring classes! Fast forward a few weeks.  Sparring classes started the first Tuesday in February.  Oh boy.  It was a real kick in the face.  Literally.  Well, more like a punch in the face, but you know what I mean.  I took a few punches to the face, even got clocked in the nose and let me tell you, it was not fun.  I have had some people say to me they love getting punched in the face.  There is clearly something wrong with these people.  The headgear absorbed most of the impact of the

Why am I fighting?   Reason Number 1 My first post on this blog I talked about how I become an FTEC fighter.   I didn’t really delve into WHY I wanted to become one or what this means to me.   There are a lot of reasons, but a few big ones stand out in my mind.   This is reason number 1.   Growing up I thought I was lucky – I didn’t really KNOW anyone personally who had been touched by cancer.   Other than my grandfather, who passed away long before I came to be, all the illnesses in our family seemed to be heart related or other.   These days, you can’t throw a stone without hitting someone who has been personally touched/affected by cancer.   And it sucks.   My luck ran out in November 2004.   Something strange happened – my dad’s skin turned “yellow”.   He seemed fine, we all joked about it (too much drinking on recent boys trip, etc) yet it was weird and it wasn’t going away so he went to the hospital to get it checked out.   The hospital said he had a block

Do you want the good news or the bad news? How I came to be an FTEC 2018 Fighter Summer 2017 was fast approaching.  My dojo, where I train jiu-jitsu, would be closing down for a couple of months and I wanted to do something to stay active.  Boxing had always interested me and my daughter, Abby, had joined Kingsway Boxing Club in the spring and was loving it.  So I signed up.  Figured it would be a great way to stay in shape for the summer and pass the time until jits resumed.  Little did I know how my life was about to change. I met Alison Turnbull, my opponent in FTEC 2018, during the summer at one of the conditioning classes.  We were supposed to be running around the buildings but both of us had given up and were walking the last half of the way 😳.  We started chatting and Alison told me about why she was attending the classes - she hoped to be part of the Fight Team for 2018 for the Fight to End Cancer.  I was intrigued but by no means ready to get in the ring.  I had heard