Jill Buchner

There was a time when breast cancer survivor Catherine Ebbs forgot how to laugh. But these days, she’s telling stories full of love and laughter to rooms full of women who need a little something to lift their spirits. Ebbs has made it her motto to “heal through love, laughter and giving back.”

“I recognize that women heal in very different ways and some of the conversations around breast cancer can be very depressing and full of despair because we have no cure,” said Ebbs. “I want to add a conversation about breast cancer that helps heal people.”

After undergoing her own healing and cancer treatments, Ebbs quit her job as a professor at the University of Windsor to focus on helping others.

“I decided I was going to make a complete turnaround and redefine my life and that redefinition meant retiring from the work I had been doing for ten years at the university,” she said.

But quitting her job didn’t mean she was giving up. Ebbs began a new life, volunteering to help other women who were faced with the same diagnosis she lived through.

“I still had journeys to go on,” she said. “I was in a circumstance blessed enough that I could make that change and contribute and give back.”

For Ebbs, giving back has meant giving presentations for women, participating in breast cancer fundraisers, getting involved in a survivors’ dragon boat racing team and talking to newly diagnosed patients.

Over the past four years, Ebbs also has played an active role as a lay member of a research team funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance.  For her, connecting with other breast cancer patients has been the greatest contribution.

“The most rewarding thing has to be when I hear a breast cancer survivor laugh, smile, find their joy again. To know that, as they’re feeling despair and sadness, there’s also great reason to hope.”

Ebbs has been able to connect with other survivors and patients through Dr. Annette Richard. She first met Richard when the doctor initiated a survivors’ dragon boat racing team to bring women who have had breast cancer together.

“Nobody’s ever been on a dragon boat before. They didn’t have a clue,” she laughed. “They just want the sense of community.”

Although she’s not an oncologist, Richard has taken a special interest in helping breast cancer patients, both as a family doctor and in her personal life.

Currently, Richard is working on building a web-based community for patients. The new website, faceitlondon.com, is an online network where women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer can gather and share experiences with each other.

“At three o’clock in the morning if you want to talk to someone you can go on this website,” she said.

Like Richard, Ebbs said she thinks opening up conversations about breast cancer can be very uplifting.

“It’s a constant reminder that women are incredible supports for each other in reaching out and helping other women.”

Image by Dawn Poland courtesy of iStockphoto