Happy Valentine's Day - and a video too!

My husband (and DriverWorks Ink partner) Al and I have been known to wear several silly costumes and fun get-ups over the years - usually connected to a Halloween party. (Picture a male Dorothy and a female Scarecrow, a six-foot-tall bumblebee and an adult baby, etc.) For the past two and a half years, I have dressed up at times to support and spend some time with seven-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner and her wingman husband Graham during some of Dionne's chemo treatments. And Al has joined me in some of those adventures.

Since December 2009, Dionne has dressed herself and Graham in costume on her chemo treatment days - for 78 different themes - to bring joy, laughter and hope to other patients in the chemo treatment room of the Allan Blair Cancer Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan. (There are 32 pages of colour photos in our Never Leave Your Wingman book.) In January 2012, Dionne was told she was in remission from Stage IV liver, lung and bone cancer. Remarkable!

So the chemo treatments stopped, as did the costumes.

In August 2012, tests found cancer in her liver again (for the fourth time), so she went back to chemo but without the full-blown costume themes this time around. Instead, she and Graham invited friends, family, readers of our book and Earth Angel supporters in general to send them matching T-shirts and "Dress Us to a T", to keep hope alive during this round of treatments.

Which brings us to Valentine's Day 2013.

Every year on February 14, we celebrate the people we love (or hope to be loved by) with greeting cards, flowers, chocolates, gifts, hugs, kisses and well... you get the picture. Whether you view Valentine's Day as the pagan fertility festival to the Roman gods or the more modern Day of Love, it remains today as the latter... and that's what we're celebrating in this little blog post.

Here we are, ready to meet Dionne and Graham at the cancer clinic. As Graham so aptly wrote in his emailed My Beautiful Dionne Update #91 about that day's chemo treatment: "Me thinks someone leaked to the press what our theme was going to be. Oh well, Al and Deana (NeverLeave Your Wingman publishers) get a big Attagirl and Attaboy for going all out!"

Don't you just love Al's tie?

And here's Dionne, all ready to go into the chemo treatment room:

You have to love the deely boppers on her head, and her 'foxy roxy' wig. Usually, this pretty lady sports the au naturel look...

...and ROCKS it!

'Ring for a hug', the bell says. 

Too bad you're all just looking at this now instead of being there in person, but the treatment room isn't that big. Oh, well. Can you feel the virtual hug coming to you from Dionne? ... 

      

... There, doesn't that feel good? 

So Happy Valentine's Day - from me, Al, Graham and Dionne! No matter where you are and what your story is, somebody loves you. And we're sending out good vibes from our place to yours.

And as promised, here's a special wish for all of you from the inspiring eight-time cancer survivor and her special wingman Graham. Enjoy!