MJ DeCoteau, founder and executive director of Rethink Breast Cancer, is celebrating the non-profit’s 25th year.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
The organizer: MJ DeCoteau
The pitch: Founding Rethink Breast Cancer
MJ DeCoteau was 16 years old when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died six years later in 1992, at 54.
“It was devastating. It was a tough, very quick decline,” Ms. DeCoteau recalled from her home in Toronto. “I wanted to do something. I wanted to fundraise, I wanted to just try to make a difference in any way I could.”
She started fundraising for various charities and quickly realized that most of the information about breast cancer catered to an older audience, much like her grandmother who had also been diagnosed with the disease. “I wanted the information to be a little bit more relatable to me and my friends,” she said.
In 2001, Ms. DeCoteau launched Rethink Breast Cancer. It was created “to fundraise, get young people involved in the cause, and get them educated,” she said.
Now in its 25th year, Rethink has a community that includes 80,000 people. It offers tailored support programs and provides resources on everything from decisions surrounding surgery to fertility and returning to work. The charity made an award-winning documentary and ran a breast cancer film festival for six years.
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Rethink is also actively involved in advocacy and adapting to the many changes in breast cancer treatment. “We have women living with stage four breast cancer for five years, 10 years, 25 years. We have learned so much,” she said.
However, there are new challenges as well, such as helping young women who are being treated longer and offering advice on how to handle different side-effects.
The charity relies on donations, grants and sponsorships to fund its $2-million annual budget. Its Boobyball party is also returning in October and has raised $5.2-million in total so far.
Ms. DeCoteau, 56, had risk-reducing mastectomies a few years ago. She has a 22-year-old daughter and she doesn’t want any young woman to be scared of breast cancer.
She’s proud of the work Rethink has done over the last 25 years and has never forgotten the message of one patient: “My hospital treated me, Rethink saved me.”