As with so many breast cancer stories, Laura Startup’s journey began when she felt a lump. When a biopsy confirmed that she had cancer, her first thoughts were of her family: “I wasn’t sure how to tell my husband. His mother and sister both died from breast cancer. I’m not scared of dying. I’m scared of leaving my children without a mother. “

Even after four years, her memory of the treatment is still fresh: “I had a mastectomy, then chemotherapy, and then radiation every day for six weeks.”

Yet despite the difficulty of her treatment, she remains deeply grateful: “I know I’m lucky to live in BC. The care I received is really outstanding. Yet I don’t want my daughter – or any woman – to experience what I went through. I benefited from research done in the past, and I know the only way to continue improving treatment and care for cancer patients is to support the kind of research funded by the BC Cancer Foundation.”