Glioblastoma Awareness Campaign Launched At Dragfest Following Racer’s Fight For Diagnosis & Life

Written by admin on 27 August 2013

Leena Hupe approaching the start line at Dragfest 2013. Her husband, Dale, catching up on the left, has been by her side through her fight with Glioblastoma as he always is on the track. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

Patte Foreman, thrilled to be photographing her friend Leena Hupe at Dragfest 2013. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

Patte Foreman and Leena Hupe have built a friendship in large part around their love of drag racing snowmobiles and so it made a lot of sense that when Patte wanted to launch an awareness campaign in honour of Leena, who was diagnosed last year with Glioblastoma^{*see description below article*}, she did it from the 2013 Dragfest.

Racing for the Cure is about ensuring that others don’t have to face the same struggles Leena battled when searching for a diagnosis.

Questions and accusations regarding whether street drugs could be to blame for seizures (they could not have been – Hupe who is also a wife, Mother, Grandmother, doesn’t use drugs), being told to go home after having a seizure at the 2012 Dragfest which resulted in her husband needing to perform CPR to get her heart beating again before she was brought to McCausland Hospital where she didn’t feel like she was receiving the care necessary to address whatever had caused the seizure and so they left, her husband urgently driving her to Thunder Bay. At Thunder Bay’s Regional Health Science Centre they faced another hurdle, there she says she was told that many people have seizures, never knowing the cause, and that she should go home. It should be added at this point that Leena had already lost her father and younger sister to Glioblastoma and so the seizures were a particularly large red flag, perhaps waiving much more significantly for Hupe than it might have for the average person. Needless to say she had no intention of going home without first having an MRI, in the end the doctor would agree and, within hours she was diagnosed – Glioblastoma – 9 to 12 months was the average life expectancy she was advised of.

It’s been about a year since that diagnosis which, thanks to Leena’s courage to share her story and determination that others will not face the same ignorance she did in regards to getting a diagnosis of the disease, is explained in greater detail in the interview below. (The description provided in the previous paragraph is lacking when it comes to conveying to what extent Leena had to battle to receive her diagnosis.) The interview also includes a brief description from Leena of how she has fought the brain tumour and the treatments, including ongoing chemotherapy, which she is going through to keep the cancer at bay and defy the original 12 month expiration date she was offered.

Close friend Patte Foreman explains, with tears in her eyes, that Leena is more than her friend, she has also been her drag racing mentor and, in how she has chosen to fight Glioblastoma and continue living her life to the fullest, an inspiration. As part of the pair’s awareness campaign decals were created, and donated, with help from Signs and Designs (Thunder Bay) the same company which has been detailing the Leena’s drag racing sleds for years. The decals were added, by many other racers at Dragfest, to their sleds and beyond Dragfest will continue to serve as a tool for raising awareness and getting conversations started about brain tumours, brain cancer and Glioblastoma.

The choice of campaign name, Racing for the Cure, requires no explination however the meaning behind the awareness campaign’s slogan; Living Every Experience, Never Admitting Hurt, Using Positive Energy may be less obvious to most people… Foreman explained that the way Hupe has chosen to fight cancer head-on, and continued living her life, with such spirit inspired Foreman to use her best friends name to build the acronym which is the slogan for the Racing for the Cure awareness campaign:

Living

Every

Experience

Never

Admitting

Hurt

Using

Positive

Energy

Learn all about it, and hear from both women what Leena racing at the 2013 Dragfest meant to each of them in the interview below.

Thanks to both Leena Hupe and Patte Foreman for sharing their story and for their work in raising awareness of Glioblastoma and Brain Tumours.

If you want to help in establishing a foundation in Thunder Bay for those with Glioblastoma or other brain tumours Leena and Patte want to hear from you! Leave a comment below (though your email does not appear publicly, the site editor can see it and will provide it to the ladies if directed to in your comment) expressing your interest.

*What is GLIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORM (GBM) Grade IV : These tumours contain various cell types, hence the name “multiforme,” the most common being astrocytes. Most of these tumours occur in the cerebral hemispheres and often involve the corpus callosum. The cells of these tumours grow quickly, are not well defined, and can spread throughout the brain. (From CBTF click to visit site)