I never joined anything. I was an individual with my own thoughts that did not suit belonging to a group – but a breast cancer diagnosis seemed to change how I felt.

A couple of years later, I read in the paper about some women who wanted to do something about breast cancer and the rising statistics. I went to the first meeting of (what became) BCAM at the Unitarian Church downtown. There I found well-informed women focused on getting answers and making changes. I stayed.

With these women I had the opportunity to learn from the best; I was actually taught to think like an activist – to question the status quo, to question what I initially accepted and to question the system, the government and everything holy. These women never hesitated to do what was necessary for our organization’s cause and to make it easier for breast cancer to come out of the closet and become a public concern. I learned you must become involved. I learned that you get back in many multiples what you give.

Now, 22 years later, emails abound: There’s a board meeting, editing is needed, someone is needed for the speakers bureau, we need delegates for the conference in Hamilton, there’s an emergency meeting for Femme Toxic, our youth branch of BCAM. We network, we protest, we answer questions, we become enmeshed in environmental concerns. We need a media response to the article in yesterday’s Gazette. We need presenters for Samantha King’s university class in Kingston.

And there are the sad moments too, when one of our members becomes another statistic, and happy times such as brunch on Saturday for our outgoing president, or dinner with our speaker for the Lanie Melamed lecture series. And, oh yes, there are cocktails after the talk.

BCAM does amazing work. Many women have come and gone since that first meeting, but we carry on. We are always a dedicated group of women working tirelessly to inform as many people as possible about the environmental links to breast cancer, other cancers and disease in general. We work well together, we work hard. We try to raise money to do our work and since we don’t take money from pharmaceutical or chemical companies, it is not always easy. We hire office staff, we write grants. We do important work, we have fun and we love and respect each other.

Deena Dlusy-Apel, a former high school English teacher, is an artist/educator and part-time supervisor at Concordia University in the art education department. She had breast cancer 23 years ago, has worked with BCAM since its first meeting in 1991, and is a long-time board member.