From Wonder Woman to kind sheep farmer and fisherman
Cancer legacies live on in Yarmouth and continue to help and inspire others
She was known as Wonder Woman. He, a kind-hearted sheep farmer and fisherman. Together – in life and in death – former Yarmouth County residents Leanne Pierce and Gilles Boudreau have inspired others and helped countless cancer patients and families.
Their legacies were especially being felt on Yarmouth's waterfront during Seafest festival activities on July 16.
While the weather forecast had called for rain, the morning saw sunshine, which Seafest volunteer and event organizer Myla Doucette credited to Leanne herself.
“She's up there sweeping away the clouds,” Doucette said about the Yarmouth woman, who died in April of this year after years of battling terminal cancer.
The Wonder Woman Walk organized in her memory saw money raised going to the Gilles Boudreau & Friends Cancer Help Fund.
When the Seafest committee talked about holding a new walk/run event, Doucette said Leanne immediately came to mind. They had first met through the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life, in which Leanne participated and was also an ambassador following treatment for breast cancer.
“She definitely made an impression,” Doucette recalled, saying a message Leanne spread surrounded the importance of having screenings done.
Still, her own diagnosis was difficult to accept.
When Leanne was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2015, she struggled with going public, saying she felt ashamed and embarrassed.
However, ultimately by going public she felt something different. It was empowering and liberating.
When people in greetings asked, “How are you?” she could answer truthfully.
AN INSPIRATION TO MANY
After being declared cancer free in 2016 her cancer returned in 2018 – this time as inoperable metastatic breast cancer that included tumours in her brain. It was her honest and raw posts on Facebook that inspired many.
She never minced words when describing what it was like to have cancer. The grueling treatments. The physical and emotional pain. The changes in her appearance. The never-ending tests and procedures. The mastectomy. A relentless monster, she called cancer.
But she also countered the hell of cancer with the beauty of family and life events.
She lived up to her hero namesake – Wonder Woman – who throughout her life she was inspired by. An independent, bad-ass woman, she called her.
People likened Leanne and Wonder Woman to one and the same.
“It's an honour,” Monika Pierce said about the Wonder Woman Walk in her sister's memory. Asked what she wanted people to remember most about her sister, she said, “Just how honestly special she was. She had a lot of love to share.”
You can feel that love in the way Cassie Dulong describes her mother. She was ecstatic to have this event held in her mom's memory.
“My mom spent her entire cancer journey telling people her story and advocating around cancer. I think it's important that even though she's gone that this continues on,” she said. “I'm glad what she did affected people. She had such an impact that even I didn't realize fully until after she had passed away.”
Indeed, there was a massive outpouring of condolences and respect shared on social media following her death at the age of 56. Many people changed their profile photos to Wonder Woman logos in her honour.
Dulong said at times when she was feeling especially sad after her mother's death, she'd see this Wonder Woman flood of love sweeping social
media and it made her feel connected with the community who felt such a deep connection to her mother.
“I think that it's important that people know what having cancer, or any illness, is like,” she said. “I think it's important that people share their stories because too often people are silent and we all think that the things we are going through, we are alone. But we are not.”
HELPING OTHERS IN GILLES' MEMORY
That feeling of togetherness was felt in droves a short distance away on Yarmouth's waterfront the morning of
July 16, as family, friends and volunteers connected with the Gilles Boudreau & Friends Cancer Help Fund scurried about, preparing for a Seafest lobster boil fundraiser for the fund. Always a popular Seafest event, it was making its return for the first time since 2019.
Born in Wedgeport, Gilles Boudreau was a sheep farmer and a fisherman, who shared his smile with everyone he met. He was a kind and caring man who was deeply involved in his community.
Boudreau was diagnosed with cancer in March 2007. Sadly a year later on March 31, 2008, he died at the young age of 48.
Cancer, of course, impacts many people. While in recent years Nova Scotia Health's Cancer Care Program has made strides in having more cancer care and treatment available closer to home at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital, many people still have to make 600-kilometre round trips to Halifax – or travel to other parts of the province – for appointments, treatment and care.
It's costly.
When former Yarmouth resident Winnie Surette – an ardent community volunteer and supporter (she has since passed away) – saw the need for financial assistance for those undergoing cancer treatment, through discussions with others it was decided to start a cancer fund in Gilles Boudreau's memory. The fund was established in 2009.
Since then it has helped many people.
‘COMMUNITY SUPPORT IS AMAZING'
Melina Boudreau, who was Gilles' wife, said it continues to be inspiring, both in terms of the people the fund helps, and the community support it receives.
“The community support is amazing,” she said.
The fund is supported through memorial donations, will bequests, and fundraising. Year-round donations – often unexpected – from individuals, businesses, community groups and community events also play a major role.
For the Seafest lobster boil, many fishermen donated hundreds of pounds of lobsters to help raise money for the fund.
Traditionally the fund has provided around $45,000 in financial assistance annually to those needing it. But with higher gas costs, last year the fund began doubling the assistance it provides.
“Instead of $100 in gas to go to Halifax it was going to be $200. Instead of $50 to Kentville, it was going to be $100,” Boudreau said. “So now $45,000 is $90,000 or more.”
In the last five years alone, the fund has given out just shy of $255,000 to help and support others.
Asked what Gilles would think of what is happening in his name and memory – in what truly is a community effort – Boudreau said he'd be incredibly happy and proud.
“He'd be thrilled,” she said. “He was a very giving person.”
She said for her family, the letters and notes of appreciation from people who the fund has helped inspires them greatly.
“We see that it's really needed, and people are appreciative of it,” she said.
Cassie Dulong was happy the event in her mother's memory raised money for the fund.
She too receives messages from people who are grateful – telling her how much her mother's words and the sharing of her cancer battle has helped them with their own cancer journeys.
Asked what she hopes people will always remember most about her mom, she said, “Her kindness, I think is the most important thing.”
“People remember her for her strength, but I think the best part of her strength was her kind heart. Even when things were really bad, she always looked for the light in others,” she said.
“Being a good person is a wonderful thing to leave behind.”