Holiday Appeal

Dear Friend,

When I first heard the news, I was shocked.

My mother looked great and always had. She’s taller than I am. She’s a good weight and is physically fit and active for her age.

“This can’t be true,” I thought. “Not my mom.”

But, it was true. At 65, my mom, who loved tending to her garden, keeping her home neat, and joining in at family gatherings, was diagnosed with osteoporosis – a potentially crippling condition.

“The thought of it – osteoporosis - hit me like a truck.”

Everyone knows that, as parents age, you face moments like this, but that doesn’t make it any easier when the time arrives.

Fear gripped me. I was scared. Scared for her. For my father and the rest of our family. And for myself.

Since I am a personal trainer with a background in Kinesiology, I knew that my mother had a bone density problem, which could lead to pain and disability as she aged. And it meant she was now at high risk of fracture...

I knew that her bones were potentially wasting away.
If left unchecked, she faced life in a wheelchair.

The idea of Mom in a wheelchair didn’t bear thinking about. How would she do the things she loves to do? She would be reduced to being a bystander at family gatherings, rather than playing the central role she loved.

Catherine
Catherine D’Aoust,
Osteofit Trainer

I was determined to help her.

I supported my mother’s fight against osteoporosis with the help of Osteofit. It’s an exercise intervention program developed in consultation with clinical specialists from the BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre Osteoporosis Program – a program we here in B.C. are very lucky to have access to.

I visited my mother not long after her diagnosis and was shocked to see she needed a walker and, even worse, that my father had bought her a scooter.

It was unbearable to see her freedom so crippled.

I began to research my mother’s condition and found out that BC Women’s is a leader in the field because Osteofit is medically endorsed and based on published research.

Osteofit teaches specific exercises that address osteoporosis and that progressively serve to strengthen muscle and bone. It improves balance and coordination too.

And, perhaps most importantly of all, Osteofit brings independence, confidence, and quality of life. However, I also discovered that the most worrying part of osteoporosis is that it definitely gets worse if left unchecked.

But Osteofit exercises are proven to ease the
condition and even reverse it.

So I signed up for a training course to learn how to teach BC Women’s Osteofit classes, which are held in community centres around B.C. Osteofit was the answer; there was simply no better way.

Unfortunately, my Mom lives outside B.C. But the next time I visited her, I was armed with Osteofit exercises, illustrations, and three-pound free-weights to get her on track.

It was a difficult transition for her. Her big fear was a very common one. She was afraid of injuring herself, especially at the start.

In fact, it’s fair to say she didn’t like the weights very much! She came up with a million and one reasons NOT to exercise.

“I’ll do the exercises tomorrow,” she would say at the beginning. Always “tomorrow...”

But we persisted. Both of us. Me with visits, phone calls, and emails of encouragement, and Mom through her trials and the occasional setback.

Then she started seeing and feeling the results. Progressing from three-pound weights to five-pound weights, especially after never having lifted weights previously, was very motivating for her.

And now, the difference is incredible!

After six months of Osteofit exercises, she didn’t need the walker. After one year, the scooter was gone.

Now she putters around in her garden, does little bits of housekeeping, plays bridge with her friends, and has an active role in family gatherings – just as she had always done.

Today, at 74, Mom is so much stronger, healthier, and happier. I can scarcely believe it. I am so proud of her and her accomplishments.

And I know that, without the research-backed, specialized programs from BC Women’s, none of this would be possible.

Osteofit has made a huge difference to the quality of her life.

To help other women and men find the benefits of Osteofit, I began teaching Osteofit classes and providing one-to-one personal training. Because if my mom can do it, so can others.

Currently, however, the government doesn’t provide enough funding for it. Osteofit is dependent on donations for its survival.

One in four women over the age of 50 have osteoporosis, but the disease can strike at any age and it’s never too late to start exercising. My mom and the women in my classes are evidence of that.

Seeing them face this crippling disease and then overcome it is more rewarding than words can describe.

For all these reasons, please make your gift today. You can help other women who depend on the specialized programs developed at BC Women’s live full, active, and happy lives.

Someday, a research-based program from BC Women’s could help your mom, or another relative, friend, or even you. Please make a gift today. The life-changing work they do at BC Women’s stretches from caring for the tiniest babies, to groundbreaking research, to saving people from lives crippled with dependency, like my Mom was just a few years ago.

Women at every stage of life need your help. Please give to BC Women’s today and help other women find hope and renewed life too.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine's signature
Catherine D’Aoust

Loving daughter and Osteofit trainer

P.S. This is just one story of one woman’s battle with osteoporosis. There will be many more... With your help other women can win the battle too. Victories like this depend on programs developed by BC Women’s clinical specialists...programs that can only survive with donations from people like you.

Please make a donation today.