At twilight on October 15th, volunteers from the Montreal and Kingston Rapid Relief Teams gave a helping hand at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLSC) of Canada’s, Light the Night Walk Event. The walk took place on Notre Dame Island in downtown Montreal Quebec, and the funds raised went towards people with Leukemia, Lymphoma and other types of blood cancer.

A truly autumn day for The Light The Night Event.

The LLSC has a mission to cure Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin’s Disease and Myeloma and improve the quality of life of the victims and their families. In 2015 alone, the LLSC invested more than $7.3 million in the creation of programs and delivery of services to improve the lives of Canadians affected by blood cancers. Although everything the LLSC does has a cost associated with it, they do not charge their patients, caregivers or healthcare professionals anything for the programs or materials they provide to them.

Filling the paper bags with sand to keep them from blowing away.

That Saturday morning, the RRT volunteers started the day off at 11am by setting up the path for the walk, with lamps and signs. They also assisted with setting up the tables with food and drink for the participants. Once the walk commenced during the afternoon, the RRT provided assistance by directing traffic and people during the event.

Setting up the signs along the paths.

When the volunteers arrived on site that morning, the weather was about 3 degrees centigrade, with a light rain. Later that night the weather was still cold and wet, but that did not stop the 4000 walkers from showing up to participate in the event.

The Sarah’s Fighters Team.

During the walk, the participants would show how they had been affected by this fatal disease by carrying a different coloured lamp. The red lamp was carried by a sympathizer, a gold lamp showed they had lost someone to cancer, and a white lamp was carried by those who are currently suffering from cancer.

The event organizers stated that they were grateful for the help of the Rapid Relief Team volunteers. The RRT were pleased that they were able to help at such a successful event and look forward to assisting again in the near future.

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