Friends inspired by cancer journey to start UW scholarship
Photo: Peter Lee/Record staff
WATERLOO — When their close friend was diagnosed with advanced and incurable brain cancer, Amy Fernandes (far left) and Heather FitzGerald felt helpless.
“I need to do something to help her,” Fernandes said.
But Alyson Woloshyn lives in Calgary, so visits to make dinner and clean up or even give her a hug were out of reach for the two Kitchener women and their tight-knit group of friends spread across Canada and beyond.
Instead they decided to start a scholarship in their friend’s name at the University of Waterloo, where they all met in residence during first year.
We “can rally people to raise money to do something that will recognize her forever,” Fernandes said.
The friends are holding a fundraiser on campus Saturday to help raise the estimated $50,000 needed to create an endowed award. The evening event will include cocktails, appetizers, silent auction, music and dancing. Tickets are $100.
Upwards of 50 donations to the silent auction have been made, including a big-screen television, framed art, gift baskets, a BlackBerry Playbook, Raptors tickets, a daylong sailing trip and a one-week condo rental in the Caribbean. More than 130 tickets are already sold and donations are already coming in.
“The support has been overwhelming,” Fernandes said.
That hardly surprises the women, knowing the impression their friend makes everywhere she goes. Even people who haven’t spoken to Woloshyn, now 35, for a decade or more are sharing fond memories.
“Everybody has the same memory of her. Just a positive, wonderful person to be around,” Fernandes said.
“Her spirit for life is contagious,” FitzGerald added. “She’s touched so many lives.”
While at the University of Waterloo, Woloshyn was involved in numerous activities on campus, serving as an orientation leader and then residence don, playing on the volleyball team and volunteering with the student federation.
“She just did everything,” FitzGerald said.
Students exemplifying Woloshyn’s leadership and drive to improve student life will be chosen for the scholarship, which will be managed by the university.
Even while battling cancer and enduring surgeries, radiation treatments and recurrences, Woloshyn has been volunteering with the Alberta Cancer Foundation to raise money for research on her rare form of brain cancer. Her goal is $50,000.
Thinking about her legacy became important to Woloshyn and now her friends, who are determined to make a lasting celebration of her life and leadership.
“She’s just given so much of herself,” Fernandes said.
Woloshyn plans to attend this weekend’s event, despite declining health in recent weeks with a reappearance of the disease.
Her friends call her a mentor and cheerleader, who has always been there to share happy occasions, like weddings and babies, and tough times, like divorce and the loss of parents. Woloshyn’s indomitable spirit is helping her friends cope throughout this difficult journey. She sees herself as a survivor and is determined to beat the odds.
“She lifted us up,” Fernandes said.
Buy tickets or make a donation at development.uwaterloo.ca/alysonwoloshyn.html.