Globe & Mail September 26, 1997
How one person with a vision and a heart made a difference
In January, 1992, both Carol Ann Cole and her
mother Mary were diagnosed with breast cancer. Carol Ann survived; her mother
did not.
A Vice President of Bell Canada who took an
early retirement package in 1994, Carol Ann subsequently left Toronto and
returned to her home town of Halifax Nova Scotia.
During her cancer journey, she had come across
a pewter pendant called "the worry heart" made by OceanArt Pewter in Prospect,
N.S. She bought one for herself, and ended up buying more for friends and
acquaintances in the cancer community. She renamed it the "comfort heart" in
tribute to its soothing effect during times of stress.
A colleague at Bell suggested that instead of
giving the hearts away, she sell them to raise money for cancer research.
She liked the idea, seeing it as a way to give
back to the cancer community that had supported her in her own fight - Carol Ann
found her cancer very early and says she came through treatment quite well – as
well as fight the disease that had killed her mother. She set out to raise
$500,000 for cancer research through selling the comfort hearts.
The vice-president of OceanArt Pewter, Linda
Power, is a two-time survivor of cancer and so the firm was very willing to go
along with the idea, giving up its net proceeds. Of the $10.00 price, more than
$6.00 goes to cancer research (the rest covers production costs plus shipping,
handling and taxes.)
Carol Ann thought it would be a wonderful way
to connect people and also a good idea for corporations to take on. That part is
happening slowly. In Calgary, PetroCan got behind her idea in the spring.
Recently the mayor of Calgary declared November Comfort Heart month and Carol
Ann plans to end a speaking tour there on Nov 4. On that cross-Canada tour,
which started this week, she will be talking to the public as well as Cancer
Society groups.
Initially Bell Canada spent $30,000 buying
3,000 hearts and gave them back to the Canadian Cancer Society for their
volunteers to give to patients as they saw fit.
Now they are being sold through Canadian
Cancer Society offices across country and during October and November at the
jewelry counters at Eaton’s stores nation-wide.
They keep supplies on hand, the Cancer Society
orders them in large batches – the last order was for 14,500 – from OceanArt.
Carol Ann’s original goal of $500,000 has been
raised. Her new goal is to raise $1 million by year’s end. She hopes the
momentum will build during Breast Cancer Awareness Month and lead to enough
sales before Christmas to ensure the new mark is reached.
Carol Ann had intended to end her own
involvement when the $500,000 mark was achieved. But she’ll most likely stay on,
even after the $1 million is raised. She gets letters about the impact of the
comfort hearts from all across the country. One woman in Nova Scotia recently
went into an OceanArt Pewter store there to tell them how much the heart had
meant to her partner, for whom she had bought it, and who had since died.
Feedback like that is what keeps Carol Ann going.
She is just a volunteer, and gets no money
from this fund-raising effort. When someone asked her what’s in it for her,
she’s quick to say: "a cure for cancer."
