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• Hobbies and Interests: Reading, crafts, collect ladybugs
• Your Relationship to Childhood Cancer: I have a brain tumour

Experience with Childhood Cancer

Type of cancer that has affected me or my family: Brain tumour

Number of years on treatment: 1 year

Number of celebrated years off treatment: 11 years

Number of months or years Bereaved: 0

My toughest challenge with childhood cancer: Not being able to do sports and other activities like normal children

Describe some great things that have come about through your journey of childhood cancer. Met lots of nice people, had lots of interesting opportunities I might not have had i.e. speaking in front of people, I don’t have to help do chores in the barn or move cows!

Describe your Best Day: When I get to go bowling with my class and then go to the Dollar store.

Tell us about your Worst Day: When it snows and is icy because I have more troubles seeing

Tell us what Coast to Coast Against Cancer means to me: Because it would bring more awareness and the more people who know about us, the better they can understand. Tell us what your message is to our riders, volunteers, sponsors and all Canadians You are doing a great thing helping children. You make us feel worthwhile when so many other people think we don’t matter.

Kathryn was diagnosed with a massive brain tumour in June 1997 at the age of 4. After over eight hours of surgery, she faced a long recuperation with many challenges. Ten months to the day of her first surgery, Kathryn had a second surgery to remove two additional tumours. Six weeks later, in a routine post-operative MRI, three more tumours were found. Kathryn underwent six weeks of radiation therapy to try to slow or stop the tumour's progression. As a result of her first tumour and surgery, Kathryn is legally blind. She has not let this challenge crush her creativity as she is an accomplished artist with five limited editions to her credit. Her paintings have sold around the world. Kathryn is an avid collector of ladybugs because in her words, "When you are blind and have a brain tumour, you need all the luck you can get and ladybugs are good luck."