Mission Statement:
The Kelly Shires Breast Cancer Foundation was established to help women and men who have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer. There are many unforeseen expenses these people may face, and which their health insurance program may not cover.
Our mission is to provide assistance to women and men in these situations in order to make their fight with cancer a little less challenging.
Who are we and what do we do?
We are a group of friends that have come together and decided to make a difference. When Kelly Shires was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 she knew first hand what it was like to battle this disease. Instead of being selfish, she teamed up with good friend Suzy Cayley and created the Kelly Shires Breast Cancer Snow Run for Fun. Collectively they worked to get a charity license approved, promote the snowmobiling event for women, organized the event and helped women with their battle against breast cancer. They took a negative and made it a positive. From two friends the charity has grown into a valued team of volunteers. The Breast Cancer Snow Run is very proud of the money that is has raised, and in 2007 it has surpassed the mark of 1 million dollars!. The first goal of the Kelly Shires Breast Cancer Foundation is to raise the needed funds to help these women through their battle with breast cancer, and also educate people in regards to the disease. It secondly promotes the sport of snowmobiling to women.
When do we hold our main events and where?
The snowmobile events are held in February with the location changing every year or every second year. Our 3rd annual Quebec event, “Randonnée des Neiges” will take place on February 23rd 2008 at l’Esterel Resort in the Laurentians and the 9th annual event in Ontario will be taking place on February 9, 2008 at the Delta Pinestone Resort in Haliburto.
As a registered charity, we are able to issue tax receipts for donations made to the foundation.
Why?
We realized that battling for your life is a very tough challenge. There are physical, emotional, mental and financial battles to overcome. In realizing this, we decided we wanted to help these women and men diagnosed with breast cancer in their fight. We help them purchase items that health insurance programs do not cover. We also wanted to raise awareness and prevention of the disease. We have patients referred to our charity by the Canadian Cancer Society, as well as social services in cancer centres throughout Canada.
It is with great sadness that we announce Kelly Shires lost her battle to Breast Cancer on October 31, 2004. Her wish was for the charity to continue growing across the country, which we have accomplished by opening our first chapter in Quebec in 2006. We are presently hoping to see this happen in the province of Manitoba.
