Cancer has played a pivotal role in Lisa Jackson’s life since before she was born in 1976. The year before, her older sister Susan died at the age of 13 from an aggressive form of childhood leukemia.

Lisa remembers a family that fondly remembered their lost daughter, but that didn’t dwell too much on their grief. Instead, the family focused on ways to help make sure that cancer wouldn’t affect other families in the same way.

“My mom started the Terry Fox Run in our region, and still runs it today,” says Lisa. “And from the very beginning, every year, my parents and my two sisters and I all went to the run — we walked, or biked, or were pushed in strollers.”

The family ethic of volunteering has continued with Lisa, who is president of the Charlottetown Curling Club’s Curl for Cancer (celebrating its 25th annual event this year) and who participates each year in the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. And every year, she and her husband, Jamie, continue the family tradition and take their two children, Anna and James, to the Terry Fox Run .

“I feel that it’s really important to volunteer, just because you can see how the research has made a difference. The survival rates for things like childhood leukemia have gone up dramatically since my sister was diagnosed. All these events — Curl for Cancer, Relay, the Terry Fox Run — they make a real difference. And so to me it’s just so important for all of us to get out there, to help get this disease under control.”

More recently, Lisa’s father underwent treatment for prostate cancer. He’s doing well. And her nephew, Anthony, is undergoing treatment for osteosarcoma, the same cancer that Terry Fox had. Anthony has had surgery to remove the tumour in his arm, and he travels regularly with his family to Halifax for chemotherapy. Unlike Terry Fox, his prognosis is good, and he hasn’t had to have his arm amputated. To Lisa, he’s proof of the power of medical research into cancer treatment.

“Terry Fox wanted to help make sure that kids who got his disease would go on to live great lives. And because of the great advantage we’ve made in cancer research, my nephew will go on to do just that.”