Katie

Kaitlyn’s own Statement

At age 13 I was diagnosed with cancer, I spent 7 weeks in the hospital. Being in hospital opened my eyes to the amount of children fighting cancer without family. I wanted to do all I could to make it better for the other children which gave me the idea to start this charity.

**Kaitlyn’s initial stay in hospital was 7 weeks. The hospital admissions also consisted of the following: 4 ICU, 2 ambulance trips to Winnipeg, 4 Emergency admissions, plus numerous clinic visits to Children’s Cancer Clinic appointments, as well as year long chemo treatments in hospital.

** Ruth Reimer

I Am My Own Person

I am my own person. I don’t want to be, nor will I be someone I’m not. I know a lot of people like to be the same by keeping up with different trends and such, but I honestly don’t see the point. Sure you might be “cool” but you’re probably missing all the simple and beautiful things in life. Of course sometimes I’ll be into popular things, but it’ll be because I genuinely like it or think it’s cool, not because someone else says so. To me, being my own person means not getting caught up in everyone else’s lives; it means being free with myself. I’m perfectly free to be open-minded and full of life, because that’s who I am, that’s who I love being. So don’t tell me to be somebody else, because nobody can tell me who to be. I’m going to be the person that I feel comfortable with, the person who isn’t afraid to be different. I’m going to embrace my Katieness.

Written by Kaitlyn Reimer, February 2012