{"id":5080,"date":"2025-10-14T09:40:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/votre-impact\/qui-aidez-vous\/more-courage-to-overcome-the-unimaginable\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T11:57:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:57:23","slug":"more-courage-to-overcome-the-unimaginable","status":"publish","type":"temoignage","link":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/en\/your-impact\/who-are-you-helping\/more-courage-to-overcome-the-unimaginable\/","title":{"rendered":"+ courage to overcome the unimaginable"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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February 2024. Gilles Bouffard collapses at home, without knowing why. The diagnosis comes two days later: M3 acute leukemia<\/strong>. A rare, brutal, unpredictable form.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s taken by ambulance to H\u00f4pital Charles-Le Moyne, where there\u2019s no mincing words:
He has a 50% chance of survival.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An unimaginable challenge begins.
40 days in total isolation.<\/strong>
Immune system at zero.<\/strong>
9 chemotherapy pills every day.<\/strong>
His body is weakened. The fear is unrelenting. Raymonde, his wife, sleeps in a chair by his side.<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 19 brings good news: he is in remission.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSome days, I just wanted to give up. But I stayed positive. I had no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there was no respite. Gilles relapsed, this time with prostate cancer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2 brachytherapy treatments. 25 radiation treatments. Weeks of discomfort. Fatigue. Pain. Solitude.<\/p>\n

And yet, it\u2019s in this Hospital that he found his strength<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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<\/i>\u00a0companionship. <\/i>\u00a0encouragement<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Today, Gilles dreams about going back to 28-30 km\/h, like before.
His body struggles to keep up.
But his heart keeps peddling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t talk enough about cancer in seniors. And yet\u2026 it destroys lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he could offer something more to others?<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/i>\u00a0companionship. <\/i>\u00a0encouragement. Because there is life after cancer. The fight is worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Tour des Battants<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Giving\u2026 giving everything you\u2019ve got.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gilles spent over 145 days at H\u00f4pital Charles-Le Moyne<\/strong>. Where he was fed, treated and supported.
He has not forgotten anything. Not the compassionate faces of the staff. The encouragement. The small gestures.
And especially, his conviction: I had to give back<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I was fed, where I lived, where I was cured. I\u2019m forever indebted.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this is how The Tour des Battants<\/strong> was born. A 75-km cycling event that Gilles launched with his own strength and that of Raymonde<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

No committee. No big team. Just the two of them, their hearts and their network.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave everything I had. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goal: $15,000 for oncology research.<\/strong>
A small step, he thought. A drop of water in the ocean<\/strong>.
But with each drop, we can make waves\u2026<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Today, Gilles dreams about going back to 28-30 km\/h, like before.
His body struggles to keep up.
But his heart keeps peddling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t talk enough about cancer in seniors. And yet\u2026 it destroys lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he could offer something more to others?<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/i>\u00a0companionship. <\/i>\u00a0encouragement. Because there is life after cancer. The fight is worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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<\/i> What if you did what Gilles did?<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Do you want to give back in your own way?
Organizing a personal fundraiser benefit event is another way to make a real difference.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfaf Every initiative counts.
\ud83d\udc99 Every gesture supports patients here.
\ud83d\udeb4\u200d\u2642\ufe0f Like Gilles, you can do something\u2026 something that reflects who you are.<\/p>\n

See what other people in the community are doing to support patients at H\u00f4pital Charles-Le Moyne.<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf my time had come\u2026 I\u2019d had a good life. But there was still something I had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5079,"template":"","class_list":["post-5080","temoignage","type-temoignage","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/temoignage\/5080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/temoignage"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/temoignage"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/temoignage\/5080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fhclm.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}