The kindness of friends and strangers has helped a 16-year-old Dartmouth girl live her dream. Gina Smith – whose bone cancer recently went into remission after a painful year of treatment – is heading to Toronto today to prepare for the Miss Teen Canada pageant on July 28. Gina had always wanted to enter the pageant but put if off until getting what she’s calling a second chance at life. She was sidelined for much of the past year by Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer that required chemotherapy, radiation and an operation to replace her lift hip and pelvic bone. She also struggled with the emotional turmoil of losing her hair during chemo and, after her operation, having to learn to walk all over again.
But last April, she applied to enter the pageant, writing about her experience, as well as her volunteer work and hobbies. She was chosen by pageant organizers to represent Nova Scotia – a method used if provinces don’t have their own pageants.
But Gina still had to raise money for airfare and the $2, 600 pageant entrance fee – used to cover the winner’s travel and accommodation costs for the year of her reign. That’s when everyone from staff and volunteers at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax to complete strangers stepped in. IWK staff organized a bake sale that raised more then $600 while Cancer Care Nova Scotia pitched in $500. Everyone from hospital volunteers to parents of other patients have since made individual donations. And after Gina’s story was publicized last month, one particularly generous stranger donated $1,100. Gina – who volunteers at the hospital to help other cancer patients cope with hair loss – is struck by all the kindness.“I was shocked that people showed so much interest,” she said Thursday, her bags already packed for this morning’s flight to Toronto – where contestants will spend a week of sightseeing and preparing for the July 28 competition. “People were so interested in giving money, like, that to me is really sweet.”
Jill Ceccolini, Gina’s IWK social worker, is also amazed by the generosity shown to the girl, whom she’s described as vivacious, and gutsy in her fight against the disease. Ms. Ceccolini, who collected the money on Gina’s behalf, was particularly touched by the most generous donor.
“He didn’t know her, he had no connection at the hospital, has no one in his family who has cancer, a man in the community in his mid-40s who was absolutely touched by her story,” she said Thursday. “We sat here and chatted for about 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe it. He came to see me and dropped the chick off himself, it was really sweet.” Ms. Ceccolini said the man wants to remain anonymous but has asked her to call him after the pageant – which isn’t nationally televised – to let him know how Gina does. “What he said to me was, that just in being able to contribute that his life just felt better that week, and he was in a better mood and all of his kind of concerns in the world didn’t mean so much. “It blew me away, just a very sweet man.” Gina had wanted to dance for that talent section of the competition, but the limp from her surgery makes that too difficult.
Instead, she’ll read a poem she wrote about cancer. She says she’s a little nervous about going away for nine days. But the young woman – who’s endured everything from the nauseating effects of chemotherapy to the emotional scars of cancer – isn’t too worried about the pageant’s outcome. “I’m just looking forward to it … the experience itself and meeting new people. The traveling part of it I like,” she said Thursday. “I don’t really cane if I win or not. I mean if I win, ‘Yay!’ but if I don’t… it’s not a big deal.”
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