2023-05-10 05:19:05
How would you approach life if you were told your time was running out? Maureen Vachon chose resilience.
Maureen was 48 years old on March 19, 2019, when she was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer, with no possibility of a cure. Doctors gave him three years to live.
Four years later, she is still there and has taken the reins of what she calls her “new life”. After having sold practically all of her possessions, Maureen undertook a long 2500 km walk on April 24 that will take her from Montreal to Cape Gaspé, then from Cape Gaspé to Montreal.
On this Tuesday, May 2, the day of our meeting, the Montrealer is in Maricourt, a small municipality in the Eastern Townships, where she is giving herself a first day off since her departure. After welcoming us, she takes us to her temporary refuge, a pretty cabin in the middle of the forest that a couple has lent her for two nights.
The hermitage is very small, but comforting. In the most total silence, between these four walls in the heart of nature, Maureen tells us regarding the four difficult years she has just gone through, starting with the moment she received her diagnosis, the equivalent of a ” big slap” in the face. From sadness to anger, she went through the same phases as those of mourning.
“At one point, I was like, ‘Okay, there Maureen, you need some resilience. You have no choice, you’re stuck with it, it won’t go away. What do you decide to do with your life?” »
Last January, her doctor told her that the cancer was back in full force and that she would have to undergo more powerful treatments. The first made him lose from the first to the last hair. In the second, she was so affected that her daily life consisted of doing crossword puzzles, watercolor painting and trying to walk a block each day with a cane.
PHOTO FROM MAUREEN VACHON’S FACEBOOK PAGE
Maureen Vachon
In other words, she felt like in a CHSLD, with a few exceptions…
“I said to myself: ‘it’s not true that you’re going to spend your life like that.’ For me, it was impossible. […] I met my doctor and I said: “this one is the last one, I don’t want it anymore”. »
The big project
“Okay, what do I do now?” asked Maureen once back home.
That’s how she started walking. Each day. First two kilometers. Then five. Then ten.
One day, his sister told him regarding the Chemin du Québec aux Valeurs Compostela, which begins in Montreal and ends at the Cap Gaspé lighthouse. Maureen didn’t need more.
“The project was gone. I equipped myself, I wanted to walk more and more. I bought my backpack, my sticks. I filled my backpack to practice with the same weight I have today. »
But what drives you to do this? we ask him.
Happiness ! Happiness ! When I walk, I no longer think of anything. […] I think of myself. Just to me. To be happy.
Maureen Vachon
Maureen will be the first to complete the Chemin du Québec round trip; it will take him four months. The recommended budget being around $20 per day and since she no longer works, the walker decided to leave her apartment and sell all her possessions. However, she does not know if she will have enough money to pay for everything.
“I’m going to see where life takes me. It doesn’t worry me, ”she says with a smile.
Maureen, like before
At the time of our meeting, Maureen Vachon had covered approximately 200 km in nine days. It shines, outside as well as inside.
“I no longer feel like a hospital number. I no longer feel like a folder. In fact, I don’t feel like a cancer anymore. I feel like Maureen, like I used to.
“I’ve only had a week to go and I think I’ll have cried three or four times along the way!” Not out of pain, but out of joy, because it’s wonderful. I really just feel in admiration, in contemplation. »
I walk and watch everything. How beautiful, nature. I enjoy my life even more. […] I think if I hadn’t had cancer, I would never have gone through this.
Maureen Vachon
As Maureen is no longer undergoing chemotherapy treatments, her immune system begins to rebuild. She nevertheless feels a lot of pain on a daily basis since the disease is still there. Maureen hurts everywhere, in her muscles, she explains. But as long as it hurts, as well as walking. And then she moves at her own pace. “I really want to take my time, because I just have that, time,” she notes calmly.
Already in the first nine days, some walkers joined her for a few kilometers. The encouragement she receives, in person and on social media, fills her heart and head. “It seems to give me physical strength,” she says.
The Montrealer is convinced that she will get through the next four months smoothly. “I don’t know why, it’s a feeling,” she says. I feel it inside. »
“At one point, I said to my sister: ‘if something happens to me on the way, at least your sister will die, but be happy’. »
We haven’t mentioned it yet, but Maureen is also taking advantage of this project to raise funds for the St-Raphaël Palliative Care Home in Montreal. She has already raised over $1,300 on her Facebook page.
“I started looking for hospices because I knew that at some point I would go there,” she explains. When I saw the one in St-Raphaël, I fell in love. If you might see the love in there. »
Eyes lit up, a smile on her lips, Maureen quotes the establishment’s slogan: “Because the last steps are as precious as the first. »
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