In Memory of Harbhajan Kaur Gill


Total Number of Gifts: 186
Total Value of Gifts: $110,644.39

Recent Donors

Hope & Heal Team - $2,573.36

Gill Family - $500.00

Sam Samaddar - $300.00

Sun City Cherries - $1,500.00

Avalon Event Rentals - $1,144.03

Surinder Thind - $500.00

Anonymous - $600.00

David Wilson - $1,900.00

Ariel Parker - $250.00

Nadine Bannister - $715.00

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It seems like nearly every day I talk to someone who has been touched by cancer in one way or another. When you hear the word "Cancer" your world seems to come to an end, nothing else really seems to matter. At least that's the way it happened for me in January 2014 when the doctors told me that they had found some spots on my mom’s leg. I didn’t know what to tell her, or the rest of my family. Soon we found out that it had already spread through her body and was in the last stages. All of this shocking news came just before her 75th birthday and my parents 50th marriage anniversary...we had been planning for months to do something special for her birthday and their anniversary. Little did we know she would be leaving us soon, that she would leave us on the very same day she was married 50 years earlier. I wish they were able to detect it sooner, I wish I could have had another birthday with her, a Christmas, and another summer.

Our mom was a special lady, she was very caring and passionate person. She was very kind hearted and always helping the less fortunate. She taught us to be kind and helpful to others around us.

Our mom's story started in a little village in India, where she grew up and became a primary school teacher. She taught for 25 years in mostly rural areas of India where the majority of families were poor and either couldn't afford education or see the value in a good education. Our mom would visit these families and encourage them to send their kids to school to receive a good education. In 1988, we moved to Winnipeg. Mom and Dad sacrificed so much to give us a shot at a better life in Canada. In Winnipeg , my mom once again found a way to help children learn through her work at the Edward Finny school. Shortly after retirement mom and dad moved to Kelowna in 2009 to be with their grandchildren. In all of her life, the consistent theme was that wherever she went she always touched the lives of those around her in profound ways.

When my mom received her diagnosis, she was admitted to the hospital for radiation therapy at KGH. Her first day there she asked me to go make a donation at the BC cancer foundation for her and when she was getting the money from her jacket she found a lotto ticket that hadn’t been checked yet. She asked me to check the ticket and I said, "Mom what would you do if you won $100,000 dollars?" She smiled and replied back, " I would donate $20,000 to the hospital." I can still remember that smile. Mom always had a special smile in her eyes.

I've started this fund because I am hoping all of my friends and family will help me raise 100,000 dollars that can be used to help with early detection. Maybe, just maybe, because of the money we raise someone else will get the opportunity to spend more time with their mom.

“Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.”

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