A few years after I finished all treatments for breast cancer (the whole ball of wax: 2 surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation), I took up a new annual ritual – the CIBC Run for the Cure. Never having been a runner or even a slow jogger, this was a real challenge. To be able to run 5 k without stopping. Didn’t matter how long it took, just the idea of getting to the finish line in one uninterrupted run (OK, OK a slow jog). That first time literally brought tears to my eyes. Hard for me to believe – it became an annual ritual/superstition, one piece of my wellness routine which has also led to meditation and being vegetarian (organic produce). So every year since 2003, I have registered and participated in the Run – 5 k, never stopping. And I always paid the registration fee, raised funds from friends and family. Until a few years ago when I watched the documentary film Pink Ribbons Inc. And I was stunned to learn about what the Globe and Mail referred to as ‘Pinkwashing’ and the dark side of breast-cancer philanthropy: how corporations profit so much from these “fundraising” activities. The film raised the question: does the money raised by all these Pink activities do any good at all? I decided that I would donate my money to BCAQ instead – oh, I still do the 5k Run, and still have not had to stop. But I prefer to send the equivalent of the funds I would have raised to the organization working more directly to prevent the disease on the ground.