OUR STORY

From our co-founders - Joanne McLean and Allie Chisholm-Smith

Joanne and I sat in her sunroom one day making sense of the world, as we so often did together, when she turned to me and asked “would you be interested in forming an organization to help people in Muskoka who are dealing with cancer?” I would jump at any invitation to work with Joanne but this one had me right away. Joanne was an unparalleled soul mate for me. She effortlessly guided us all, rallied us to see that we could play a part in reducing the social isolation that comes with this disease. She herself tirelessly researched options for her own breast cancer, which was metastatic into her liver. She was strong, she was vulnerable and disarmingly honest about her own journey, her fears and her struggles.

Joanne sought out the light in everyone that she met. Moreover, she then insisted that we too saw that light in ourselves and that we contracted to shine it out. She called on us all to be the magnificence that she saw in us. She refused to be a victim. Her son Spencer said that cancer didn’t beat his mum. It may have taken her body but it never took her spirit. Her spirit will live on in Enliven and through each one of you that is touched by her legacy. May we all be the magnificence that our beautiful Joanne lived, breathed and fought for.