News & Events

Heather’s blog: One opportunity leads to another

By Heather Bonynge “Sometimes the bad things that happen to us in life, put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.” – […]

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Heather’s blog: Risks and rewards

It has been during those times in my life when I listened to what my gut was telling me, and followed what was truly in my heart and true to me, that I have made my best choices, and found direction.

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Heather’s blog: What to expect before your first Conference

My original mission, when I signed up for the conference in Ottawa in 2011, was to find other cervical cancer survivors. I wanted to connect with them, and hopefully grasp a better understanding of my own treatments and the effects I was dealing with afterwards as a result.

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Heather's blog: Right here, right now

“There is nothing I can add to my life right now that would make me any happier.”

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Heather's blog: Expectations

For a long time now, I have been holding back making the changes I need or desire in certain areas of my life because of expectations — listening too closely to others, and not being honest about my own… This burden of expectation has been a heavy one for me, and one that I felt the weight of with each step I took up Gros Morne.

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Heather's blog: Moving on from cancer

Fourteen years ago I moved to Scotland, and I climbed a mountain. When I got to the top of that mountain, I threw my arms in the air and yelled, “Alba gu brath!” (Scotland Forever). That climb came after a very difficult period of my life, and it was so much more than a 19 year old girl climbing a mountain as part of the backpacker’s tour she was on.

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Heather's Blog: Sometimes the unexpected path leads where you're supposed to be

Grade 12, graduation, and my eighteenth birthday came with me involved in a highly abusive relationship, broken, lost, and a shadow of that ambitious girl I had been just a few short years before. I had no idea who I was anymore, who I could be, and where I was headed next. What I did know was that I couldn’t live like this much longer, and I needed to make a change.

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Heather's blog: Creating the life I want & setting daily intentions

“When you become clear on how you want to feel, it makes it easier to create the life you truly want to live.”

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Heather's blog: No children, no choice

I’m realizing that even when you are given the definite answer that you will never have children, there is an unrelenting sense of loss and grief over what cancer has taken from you, and the path you will now never get to explore. The best part is, with the voices and stories I have heard in the past month from my fellow YACCers, I know that I am not alone, and you all have my back!

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Heather's blog: Moving on from the fear of recurrence

I think the fear of recurrence is something that I will continue to struggle with, maybe for the rest of my life.
I have, however, learned to better manage the fear.

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Heather's blog: YACCtivist (always) in training

I gave my first presentation in front of 66 grade seven and eight students at Fairhaven School in Saskatoon last week.

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Heather's blog: To Africa with life, enthusiasm, love

I realized that when I was there five years ago, I didn’t experience what I loved about Africa because I was completely absorbed by my fear. When I thought back to it, I could barely remember anything of that trip except those dark places. Now here I was, brought back to feel the same way I did as a 22-year-old, and it was amazing and confounding!

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