Cole and dozens of other Honour Role members in
the past 13 years were selected not only for their individual works, but because
they are emblematic of millions of Canadians who volunteer to help others…..They
make a stunning contribution to the Canadian economy." Robert Lewis Editor
Maclean's / December 21, 1998
by John Demont
Maclean's
Honour Roll
1998
"I felt like there was
something else I should
do with my life'
CAROL ANN COLE BELIEVES in a well-ordered universe
- one in which everything, no matter how awful, happens for a
reason. So she has to believe something good came from the lump she
found in her breast in 1992, just five days before her 76-year-old
mother, Mary, also learned she had breast cancer. Otherwise, the
long treatment they both endured and her mother’s death 11 months
later would be without purpose. And Cole might still be a
high-flying vice-president at Bell Canada, instead of finding deeper
purpose as a tireless cancer crusader and fund-raiser "I work just
as hard, I get no salary and I’m forever on the road," she says,
smiling from amid the clutter of her small apartment-office in a
Halifax high-rise. "But at the end of the day, I’ve never felt so
fulfilled."
At 52, Cole - who was born in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley -
has harnessed the energy, drive and ambition that took her from the
typing pool to the executive ranks to now become the driving force
behind the marketing of a small heart-shaped pewter pendant
dedicated to her mother’s memory. With $6 of its $10 price going to
cancer research, she has raised more than $700,000 for that effort
in just two years. In October, she received the Canadian Cancer
Society’s most prestigious award - The Terry Fox Citation of Honour
- for her "extraordinary, heroic contribution to the fight against
cancer." And every day, her Halifax mailbox overflows with warm
thank-you notes from cancer survivors and the family members of
victims who find comfort and hope in her brainchild. "It’s people
like you and your mom," wrote a Toronto woman who recently bought
two Comfort Hearts in memory of a sister-in-law who died from breast
cancer, "that make a difference in this world."
Cole and her mother, who were both living in Toronto at the time,
fought the disease together. They took radiation treatments on the
same day and bucked up each other’s spirits when they inevitably
sagged. Cole eventually had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor and the
adjoining lymph nodes. It worked, but her mother’s cancer was too
far along. By the time her mother died, Cole, a single mother with
one grown son, was back working as vice-president of Bell’s
installation and repair department. But the old drive to move up the
company ladder was gone ‘I was always a workaholic who loved every
minute of it," she recalls. "Now, I felt like there was something
else I should do with my life.
In January, 1994, she took an early retirement package and threw
herself full time into working with cancer patients. Five months
later, on a visit to a Nova Scotia gift shop, she saw a shelf full
of pewter Worry Hearts—designed, like worry beads, to soothe the
holder during stressful times. At first, she bought 25 to pass out
to cancer patents to hold while receiving treatment. Then, she
thought why not sell the pendants and use the money for cancer
research? She persuaded the local manufacturer, Oceanart Pewter, to
change the name and join the effort.
Next, Cole bit the sales circuit—making speeches, appearing on
talk shows and doing whatever it takes to promote her shiny little
hearts. So far, she has sent out almost 22,000 personal letters from
her home. Her next goal: spending more time pounding on boardroom
doors to get corporate support. "It’s like my new life and the old
one are coming together," she says. Now, if she can just convince
her old business buddies to share her new passion and purpose.
