NEWS PHOTO SEAN ROONEY - Tiana Shoebridge (left) and her partner Colin Binding pose at B&J Signs Thursday ahead of Saturday's bottle drive for Kids Cancer Care. Tiana is holding the yearbook from when she went to a kids cancer camp as a teenager.
srooney@medicinehatnews.com
When she beats cancer for the fifth and presumably final time, Tiana Shoebridge will leave something behind.
A little wisdom. A lot of love. And proof that she’s so much stronger than she ever imagined.
The 40-year-old Medicine Hat woman is behind a pair of bottle drives benefiting Kids Cancer Care, the last of which takes place this Saturday. She and partner Colin Binding realize it may be the last fundraiser she ever takes part in, her latest bout with cancer deemed terminal with life expectancy less than a year.
“Death is where I will beat cancer for the fifth time,” she wrote in an email interview with the News, her voice impaired by the disease which has spread to her tongue, lymph nodes and elsewhere. “It may take my life but it won’t take my legacy and my legacy is to take away its power by getting people to raise money and fight back by getting their stories out there.”
Her story began 26 years ago with a diagnosis of rhabdomyosarcoma in her soft palate. In the midst of 48 harsh weeks of chemotherapy her family was forced to move into “a deathtrap house” because her mom had to quit her job to take care of her.
“Things eventually worked out but we sure could have used some help back then – KCC hadn’t quite gotten that big yet,” noted Shoebridge.
In fact, it barely existed. Christine McIver, motivated by the loss of her son, began running camps for children with cancer in 1994 – the same year Shoebridge was diagnosed.
“Tiana was one of my very first campers,” said McIver, now the CEO of an organization which during most years would welcome hundreds of kids to Camp Kindle. “She wants to do something that’s going to be really meaningful.
“I think it’s quite frankly a legacy piece for Tiana. (She) wants to make a huge difference in the lives of children that are diagnosed with cancer today and those that are going to be diagnosed tomorrow.”
The pandemic has devastated Kids Cancer Care, donations down 80 per cent and half of their staff laid off. They’re doing online outreach and will let four families a week use Camp Kindle, but that’s a sliver of a typical summer.
Bottle drives like the one which took place in Medicine Hat two weeks ago – and the one Saturday – have become crucial in lieu of regular fundraisers being cancelled. Duel It For the Kids was the city’s biggest event supporting children’s cancer charities, but it might not happen this year. Its original April date was cancelled.
“This year we were anticipating $25,000 that would go directly to Camp Kindle for these kids,” said organizer Corrie Dale, who along with husband David has seen the event total $150,000 over the past five years. “It’s devastating to know Camp Kindle has had to cancel this year, but those dollars also go to families dealing with cancer. COVID hasn’t stopped that.”
Shoebridge and Binding say they’ve raised around $3,000 between the first bottle drive and cash donations. Anyone with bottles or cash to donate can effectively skip the lineups at depots and drop off at B&J Signs – their business at 728 16 St. SW in the light industrial area. The bottle drive will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“I’m here to make sure her goals are met,” said Binding, who’s also offering to pick up if you can’t make it there. “Sometimes it’s tough for her to maintain where she used to be. I’ve been her mule.”
Keeping so busy with charity work has helped Binding deal with what he knows is coming. Together for 10 years, the couple is inseparable: whether taking motorcycle rides, camping or caring for rescued animals.
“I’m grateful because she has shown me things that are the worst experiences in life that you can go through, and the best experience all at the same time,” he said.
“I’m scared to death because everything that means anything to me is probably going to be gone in a very short period of time.”
Binding hopes he will find a way through the pain, just as Shoebridge did through all of her other cancer diagnoses. After becoming a poster child for the Canadian Cancer Society in 1996, her mouth cancer returned in 1999. In 2011 a new cancer showed up, this time in her neck. It relapsed a year later, too.
And yet, she kept a keen sense of humour through it all, noting of surgery for the neck cancer that “I looked like Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.”
“Going through cancer when I did taught me that I could fight on levels I never knew I had and from places that I never knew existed,” she wrote. “You have to try to make the most of life but the world is designed so that you can’t do that anymore.”
Despite all her passion for the cause, Shoebridge only ever attended a kids cancer camp for one week, more than a quarter-century ago. But she sees all the other things the foundation does like funding research and offering bereavement retreats for families, and wants to do what she can to inspire others to give the way she has.
“This is such a basic visceral way of being able to make an impact and a real hurrah,” said McIver. “She’s this amazing, selfless young woman that wants to leave a mark in her last days. It’s just remarkable.”
