Walking

NET Cancer Day 2025

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Once again, today is NET Cancer Day. November 10th is a day set aside to increase awareness of neuroendocrine cancer and to promote improved diagnostics, treatments, care, and research, but for those of us who live with the disease, every day is NET Cancer Day.

Here are a few alarming facts that point out why a day like today is vital:

  • Over 90% of all NET patients are incorrectly diagnosed and initially treated for the wrong disease!
  • The average time from onset of symptoms to correct diagnosis often exceeds 5 years!
  • Over 50% of NET patients are already at stage 3 or 4 when diagnosed!
  • Many primary care physicians are unfamiliar with NETS and some still falsely believe that it isn’t even cancer!

These are just some of the reasons that I have become involved in patient advocacy over the past couple of years. Once considered a rare disease, NETS has become the fastest growing class of cancer worldwide. Although the reasons for this aren’t fully understood, it’s likely due to increasing awareness and better diagnostics.

In addition to my role as a member of the CNETS (Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society) Advocacy Advisory Board, I’ve become actively involved in trying to improve the patient experience in a number of other ways. I had the opportunity to participate as a patient representative in an Ipsen project to design an injection toolkit to make the experience easier for patients who are newly prescribed the medication that I receive every 28 days. Ipsen is the pharmaceutical company that produces the drug.

Also, if you’ve been reading my blog you know that I participated in this summer’s CNETS “Hoofing It” fundraiser. With the generous support of many, including some of you who read the blog, we managed to raise over $40,000 for NET cancer research here in Canada. An additional bonus for me was the fact that the “hoofing it” that I committed to as part of this initiative got me out walking almost every day. Now that the campaign is over and the weather has turned cold, daily walking has become a habit and I’ve dusted off the treadmill in the basement so that I can keep it up over the winter!

Another big opportunity came my way earlier this year when I was asked to co-lead the CNETS Alberta patient support group that meets online once a month. This really was a big step for me as I’d never been part of a support group before! Every month I hear stories from patients who were initially misdiagnosed, who feel confused or unheard, whose symptoms have been minimized or dismissed as all in their head, who feel lost trying to navigate the health care system, or who don’t know how to advocate for themselves. More than ever, I’ve come to realize how badly we need to continue raising awareness and promoting better diagnostics, treatments, care, and research. One day a year just isn’t enough!

And now, on a more personal note, you may remember that in my 12 year cancerversary post at the end of August, I mentioned the latest tumour on my liver. A week from today, on November 17th, I’ll be having a CT guided ablation to destroy it. A needle-like probe will be inserted through my abdomen and into the tumour where it will deliver microwave energy to kill the cancer. This is done as a day procedure, but I’ll be required to stay in the city overnight in case of complications. I’m not sure what the recovery will entail, but hopefully I’ll be back on the treadmill before long!

 

No one fights cancer alone

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My cancer is on the move again and so am I. It’s been 5 years since I last participated in the annual CNETS (Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society) Hoofing It fundraiser and I’m late to the party this year, but I’ve decided to get involved again.

It’s been 12 years since I was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer (NETs). Once the shock of learning that I had a cancer that I’d never heard of and that I’d be living with it for the rest of my life wore off, it became important to me to do what I could to help raise awareness of this little known disease and to support fundraising efforts for research, better treatments, and patient support. If it wasn’t for the research that organizations like CNETS fund, I probably wouldn’t be here today, so this is definitely something that’s very close to my heart!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the blog before, but several months ago I became co-lead of the CNETS Alberta Patient Support Group that meets online once a month. Every month I hear from patients and caregivers whose lives have been turned upside down by this disease. Some are newly diagnosed and looking for answers. Others have been battling this for longer than I have and some are ready to give up hope.

After 16 months of stability following the radioembolization treatment that I had in March of last year, my cancer is growing again. Another tumour on my liver has started to increase in size and I’m waiting to find out how we’re going to treat it. At this point, my other tumours continue to remain stable and the cancer hasn’t spread to any new locations, but this is definitely beginning to feel a bit like a game of Whack-a-Mole! We haven’t exhausted all the possible treatment options yet, but this new development has reminded me how important it is that research into new treatments continues to move forward.

In past Hoofing It fundraisers, participants kept track of how many kilometres they walked, hiked, biked, or paddled, but not all patients are physically capable of doing those things. This year points are being assigned for a wider variety of physical activities. I’m not concerned about earning points though. My goal is simply to walk or hike at least 5 days a week until the end of September & to raise a minimum of $1200.

The walking part is easy. I was already doing that before we went to Europe, but since arriving home last month, I’ve been a bit lazy. Hopefully participating in this endeavour will provide the motivation I need to keep moving.

The $1200 is where you come in! As my new t-shirt says, no one fights cancer alone. I’m hoping that I can persuade you to visit my fundraising page here and make a donation. No amount is too small! Every cent received by CNETS during this campaign will go directly to neuroendocrine cancer research. We need to know what causes this disease, we need more and better treatments, and we need to find a cure!

Last day in Germany

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Today was our last day in Germany. As much as I’ve enjoyed the last week, I’m tired with a capital T and I’m ready to go home. Even though it was just over three weeks, it seems like forever ago that we set out on this big adventure.

We walked a lot again today, but at a very leisurely pace. It was 31ºC (88ºF) this afternoon and we had plenty of time to see Mainzer Alstadt, the old town centre of Mainz. There are many historic churches throughout the city, but three stand out and are worth a mention here. Because of the narrow, crowded streets, it isn’t always easy to get good photos of the exteriors, but I’ll share the interiors of the two that we were in today.

St. Stephan’s is located high on a hill overlooking the old town. We arrived just as the doors were being opened and were delighted to find a musical performance happening inside. The acoustics, as is true in so many of these old stone churches, were amazing.

St.Stephan’s is known for it’s brilliant blue stain glass windows created by Jewish artist Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985). They cast a mystical light throughout the interior of the church and reminded me of flowing water.

Only the three long panels at the front of the church contain figures like these ones.

Even though my blog takes it’s name from one of my ancestors, not St. Augustine, the church that bears his name was something I had to see. St. Augustine Church is tucked into a narrow pedestrian street.

The inside is absolutely spectacular. I have trouble wrapping my head around so much money being spent on a place of worship in a world where people go hungry, but at the same time, I can’t help but appreciate the beauty.

By far the most imposing structure in the old section of Mainz is the enormous St. Martin’s Cathedral. Photos simply don’t capture how massive the 1000 year old structure is.

Friday is market day in the main square next to the cathedral and if I lived in Mainz, this is where I’d be doing my weekly grocery shop. Fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, baked goods, eggs, honey, wine, and even flowers can all be found in the giant outdoor market. It reminded me of shopping in Mexico and in China when we lived there.

After our stroll around the old town and through the market, we returned to the nearby river and walked along the promenade again.

Embedded in the largest wine-growing region in Germany, Mainz is known as the country’s wine capital, so we ended our self-guided tour with a glass of wine by the Rhine!

Now our suitcases are packed and we’re ready to leave. We’ll catch a train to the Frankfurt airport early tomorrow morning and fly out at noon. The blog will probably be silent for a few days while I recover from jet lag and get back into routine, but we have more travel plans for later this summer , so don’t go away!

Heidelberg Castle and the Philosopher’s Walk

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Every year, the ruins of Heidelberg Castle attract approximately one million visitors from around the world making it by far the most visited site in the area. This morning, we caught a bus in front of our hotel and then rode the funicular up the north side of Königstuhl hill to the imposing structure that overlooks the city’s Old Town. An hour long English tour with a delightful and extremely knowledgeable guide was an excellent way to begin exploring the site. He managed to fit hundreds of years of history into a very short time!

The earliest castle structure dated back to the 13th century, but in the 1600s when it became home to Prince-Elector Friedrich V and his wife, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I of England, it underwent major expansion and became one of the grandest palaces of the Renaissance period. In the late 17th century, it was repeatedly attacked and severely damaged by the French. Later, the local populace began to rebuild it, but in 1794, two devastating lightning strikes caused further damage and the once majestic residence was almost completely burned out. Citizens of Heidelberg used stones from the ruins to build their homes until Count Charles de Graimberg began an effort in 1800 to conserve what remained. Had he not done that, there might not be much left for visitors to enjoy today!  

In addition to all that he added to the castle, Friedrich V commissioned a great garden to be built on the hillside above the castle. Gunpowder was used to carve out terraces to accommodate ornamental flower beds, labyrinths, pergolas, and water features. While the gardens were never completed, the area provides visitors today with amazing views of the castle and the town below. 

A walk on the once fortified wall in front of the castle also offers spectacular views of the Old Town. The prominent building in the top left quadrant of the second photo is the Church of the Holy Spirit. Constructed between 1398 and 1441, it’s still in use today over 600 years later!

After exploring the castle and its grounds, we took the funicular back down the hill and walked through town to the Old Bridge. Hubby wasn’t too keen about climbing the steep hillside on the other side of the river to the Philosopher’s Walk, given that name during the 18th century because of the many Heidelberg professors and philosophers who enjoyed the path for its solitude, natural beauty, and great views. Perhaps I should have listened to him, but it was on my list of things to do in Heidelberg and I didn’t want to miss it. Although I’d been warned, the climb was longer and steeper than I had imagined! Once we reached the path, we only walked a fairly short segment of it, but the views of the river and the town below were worth it. 

Exploring Old Heidelberg

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My first impression of Heidelberg was that it’s cleaner and quieter than Frankfurt. It’s also much smaller. There’s less English on signs, maps, and menus which makes me wish I’d managed to keep up my high school German! It’s also much more historically authentic because, unlike Frankfurt, it was almost completely spared during World War II. Since it wasn’t an industrial centre or a transport hub, it wasn’t a target for Allied bombing.

We arrived by train shortly before noon yesterday, dropped our suitcases at our hotel, and headed for the Altstadt (Old Town) where we enjoyed wandering the narrow streets.

We saw several ancient churches including St. Peter’s, the oldest church in the city. Parts of the tower date back to the 12th century.

The Alstadt is also home to Heidelberg University, the oldest university in Germany. The building on the right in the next photo is the University Museum.

One building of particular interest is the former student prison, used to detain unruly students from 1778 to 1914! Part of the stone interior is now a shop selling university t-shirts, hats, and other memorabilia.

The imposing Rathaus, or City Hall, with the fountain of Hercules in front, overlooks Market Square and has appeared as it does today since 1701.

A short walk from the Market Square took us to the Old Bridge across the Neckar River.

The bridge offers a great view of Heidelberg Castle on the hillside above town. We’ll be exploring that today!

Walking  back along the river toward our hotel, we discovered a bit of serendipity. Looking over the balustrade, we spotted a short stretch of white sand complete with beach chairs and a kiosk selling beverages. Our tired feet took us down the stairs to investigate further and we ended up taking a wonderful and unexpected break there!

I can’t begin to imagine how many miles we’ve put on these feet over the past few days, but they were very happy to take a break! We’ve always said that walking is the best way to see a city and it’s moments like this one that we’d miss if we always depended on transit to get around.

We are going to take a bus to the castle this morning though as it would involve retracing a lot of the steps that we took yesterday and our legs could use the rest!

Frankfurt Am Main

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Although we commonly refer to it as Frankfurt, the city’s full name is Frankfurt Am Main which means “Frankfurt on the Main” (pronounced mine). The Main River, the longest tributary of the Rhine, figured prominently in our day today.

We love the way that the city has preserved green spaces along both sides of the river and we’ve spent some time walking by the water each day since our arrival.

This morning, we walked about a kilometre from our hotel to Hobeinsteg, a suspension bridge built in 1990 that is one of two footbridges that span the river.

After crossing, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the south side of the river eventually crossing back over on Eiserner Steg, the other much older pedestrian bridge that is famous for the thousands of locks of love that adorn its iron rails.

We had hoped to spend some time in Kleinmarkthalle, a huge indoor market featuring more than 60 stalls selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, baked goods, and international delicacies, but when we arrived, we discovered that it was closed. That’s when we realized that today is a holiday in Germany! It wasn’t until we returned to the hotel and I checked online that we learned that it’s Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday which is celebrated the day after Pentecost.

Since we couldn’t visit the market, we took a look at our tourist information to find out what else of interest might be in the area and discovered that Hauptwache was less than half a kilometre away. Built in 1730 as Frankfurt’s main guardhouse or police station, the baroque-style building is now a popular café where we enjoyed lunch at an outdoor table in the sun.

Walking just a little further, we spotted something that absolutely had to be checked out. I almost expected to see Rapunzel at one of the tower windows!

Upon investingating, we discovered that the 47 metre (154 feet) high Eschenheimer Turm, erected in the early 1400s, was the northern tower of the wall that surrounded the then fortified town of Frankfurt Am Main.

Returning to the river, we embarked on a 100 minute cruise with the Primus Line. After all the walking we’ve been doing, it was very nice to sit and watch the city glide by.

Exploring Frankfurt

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Our time in ministry came to an end late Friday night and we headed for the nearest airport almost immediately afterward. Saying goodbye was hard, but flights in and out of that part of the world all seem to go at bizarre hours of the night. We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany early Saturday morning tired in mind and body, but buoyed in spirit by all that we had been experiencing.

Since we had to fly through Frankfurt, it only made sense to the wanderer in me to spend some time exploring a bit of Germany before we head for home. After making our way through passport control, grabbing a quick breakfast at the airport, and figuring out how to catch the train into the city, we located our hotel just around the corner from the central station. As it was several hours before our room would be ready, we left our two little suitcases (yes, we’re traveling carry-on only again) in a locker in the lobby and set off on foot to explore our surroundings.

Approximately 25% of Frankfurt’s population are immigrants who don’t hold a German passport and another 10% are naturalized German citizens. Along with recent refugees from Ukraine, the city is home to a vast number of Syrian asylum seekers as well as expats from many other locations around the world. The multi-cultural nature of the city was clearly evident as we explored the area near our hotel. In fact, we had a hard time finding a traditional German meal!

Later, we walked some more to see the Old Opera House which was constructed during the 19th century, destroyed during World War II, and rebuilt in 1981.

After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast in a restaurant in the corner of the train station, our feet hit the pavement again and we headed for historic Alstadt (Old Town) about 1.6 km (1 mile) from our hotel. It was a cool, cloudy day with occasional light showers, so my photos aren’t as clear and bright as they might otherwise have been, but I took almost 100 and will share just a few of them here.

We entered the area through the arched bridge that connects the north and south buildings that make up the Altes Rathaus or Old Town Hall.

St. Paul’s Church, consecrated in 1833, was the seat of the first freely elected German parliament and is now used by the City of Frankfurt as a special events venue.

A two minute walk took us to colourful Römerberg Square, a post war reconstruction of the old city plaza that was used for hundreds of years to hold markets, fairs, tournaments, festivals, and even executions.

The Fountain of Justice stands at the centre of the square.

With its three gabled roof, the 15th century Town Hall or Römer dominates one side of the square.

Römerberg Square is also home to a monument that might be easily overlooked by many visitors as they focus on the colourful historic buildings surrounding them. Set into the pavement, the large memorial plaque reads “At this place on May 10, 1933 National Socialist students burnt books by authors, scientists and publicists.” Records show that these Nazi sympathizers burned more than 25,000 books that were deemed to be “un-German.” A quote by German-Jewish writer Heinrich Heine stating, “That was just the beginning. Where one burns books, in the end, people are burnt as well.” encircles the memorial.

Nearby, the gothic style Frankfurt Cathedral, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is the largest religious building in the city. It’s so big, in fact, that I couldn’t find a good vantage point to fit it all in a photo!

The 95 metre (312 feet) tall cathedral tower is by far the most magnificent part of the structure.

328 stairs took us to the top for some spectacular views of the city! Is it any wonder that our legs are telling us that they’ve been overworked?

Now I’d best get some sleep as we intend to put on many more miles tomorrow!

Crossing the finish line

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On Wednesday, while hiking the Holdsworth Trail in Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, I crossed the finish line of my self-imposed 300 km in 150 days walking challenge 10 days before the deadline! 

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I recently read a quote by French philosopher and author, Albert Camus that resonated with me. It describes perfectly why we love to camp and hike at Miquelon in the fall. 

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” 

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In fact, after completing the Holdsworth Trail on Wednesday, we hiked another 8.9 km on the park’s beautiful and very colourful backcountry trails the following day. 

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Although I’ve now accomplished my walking/hiking goal for this season, I’ll continue keeping track of my distance at least until my 72nd birthday on the 5th of October which was the deadline that I’d set for myself and then I’ll keep on walking and hiking until the snow flies, hopefully sometime in the distant future! 

Exploring the University of Alberta Botanic Garden

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As part of his 50th year university grad celebration, hubby received complementary tickets to the University of Alberta Botanic Garden (formerly called the Devonian Gardens) just outside Edmonton. It was a beautiful fall day; perfect for a peaceful stroll through the 80 acres of themed gardens and winding nature trails.

While the garden wasn’t the riot of colour that it might have been earlier in the season, there were still many beautiful flowers to be seen.

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With its geometric granite and limestone terraces, still reflective pools, and the soothing sound of moving water, the expansive Aga Khan Garden, a contemporary interpretation of Islamic landscape architecture, was a very peaceful place to stroll. The central focus is a waterfall tumbling over textured stone.

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IMG_7285 Recently renovated, Connie’s Secret Garden at the north end of the Alpine Garden is home to a more natural looking waterfall.

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Indoor showhouses feature plants from three very diverse climatic zones… tropical, temperate, and arid. Everywhere we went, we were surrounded by an abundance of plants of every description. Some of the most unique ones were the cacti in the Arid Showhouse. Just look at that amazing flower.

During the year that we lived in Japan, I fell in love with the beautiful strolling gardens, so we purposely saved the Kurimoto Japanese Garden for last today knowing that it would be my favourite part. With it’s lanterns, arched bridge, and pagoda, the design is authentically Japanese, but the garden utilizes plants that are hardy enough to survive our northern climate.

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This is really just a sampling of what the Botanic Garden has to offer. We walked every pathway, some of them twice, covering a total of 6.21 km (3.86 miles) leaving me less than 10 km to go to complete my 300 km in 150 days goal!

The Trans Canada Trail

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The Trans Canada Trail isn’t a single trail. It’s the world’s longest multi-use trail network consisting of greenways, waterways, and roadways stretching across Canada from the Pacific to the Arctic and the Atlantic oceans. It crosses every province and territory and connects more that 15 000 communities.

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Last week, while camping at Hilliard’s Bay Provincial Park on Alberta’s Lesser Slave Lake, we had the opportunity to hike a couple of short portions of the trail that follows the north shore of the lake.

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It was while we were hiking there that I reached the 150 km point on my 150 day walking challenge. I’m halfway to my goal well ahead of schedule!

In the summer of 2021 , award-winning Canadian filmmaker, photographer, author and multimedia artist Dianne Whelan, became the first person to complete the entire Trans Canada Trail. Over a six year period, she travelled by foot, bike, and canoe chronicling her remarkable journey in her film, 500 Days in the Wild.

While I can’t even imagine attempting such a daunting venture, it did occur to me while we were hiking that if I were younger, I would plan to visit all 13 Canadian provinces and territories and hike a section of the trail in each one!

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Now that we’re home and getting back into routine, I just need to ensure that I keep on walking. I still have 147.3 km (91.5 miles) to go before October 5th!