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Giving blood is now even easier

Looking for a good summertime tune? How about Buddy Holly’s 1958 hit “It’s So Easy to Fall in Love”?

Now, instead of the usual lyrics, “It’s so easy to fall in love,” let’s sub in a new chorus: “It’s so easy to give some blood; it’s so easy to give some blood…” ‘Cuz you know what? IT IS.

Regular readers will know that Lynn Valley mom Erica Harris has an ongoing need for blood transfusions while she and her family hope and pray that a suitable donor can be found for a bone marrow transplant. Erica has been through two rounds of chemotherapy since her early June diagnosis and has yet to find out if treatment has started to help reverse her situation.

In the meantime, Erica’s friends have mounted a gone-viral media campaign to encourage people to register with Canadian Blood Services’ OneMatch program and provide a cheek swab (via mail, or in person) to see if they could be the one-in-a-million match for Erica or someone else on the transplant list. Details to do so are in an earlier post, and we know the response all around has been great.

The Harris’s situation is a wake-up call to all of us that the need for donated blood and blood products is constant. There are thousands of “Ericas” out there, each with their own desperate need for our help. So, as Erica’s husband Harley has already reminded people, please don’t just sign up for the bone marrow list – please, please, please GIVE BLOOD, for the sake of many.

We’re pleased to tell you that the process is much more convenient than it used to be, as donors can now browse and book clinics and appointment slots online. It’s user-friendly, they’ll send you a reminder email or phone call, and you can cancel and re-book if need be.

We tried out the permanent downtown clinic in the Standard Life Building (at 888 Dunsmuir), and were in and out within an hour. It’s best to book ahead, but if you’re lucky they’ll be able to take you if you just walk in off the street (try to avoid lunch hour). Hours are 8 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, and the staff and cookies are both great.

Of course, travelling clinics come to the North Shore, so if you don’t get over the bridge often, visit Canadian Blood Services to find out when one will next be at North Lonsdale United Church.

It’s so easy to give some blood.

 – Peggy Trendell-Jensen, editor

July 20, 2012 in Blog, Current News, Getting Involved

New group welcomes ramblers and rovers

If you’re the type of person who instinctively prefers the term ‘rambling’ to ‘hiking,’ you might be interested to hear about a new informal walking group that meets twice a month.

Jane and Leo are friends who have made a habit of meandering Lynn Valley trails, learning about the flora and fauna they encounter, chatting along the way, and – in short – making the journey an end in itself.

Now they are inviting others to join them every second Sunday, beginning at 2 p.m. at the End of the Line store at the top of Lynn Valley Road. They pick a ‘theme’ for each walk (the next one, July 29th, will be trees, while the following one on August 12 will be logging lore) and spend an hour exploring the trails, and the theme, at a leisurely pace. (See our Events Calendar for upcoming walks.)

If you’d like to become a Lynn Valley rambler, contact Jane at [email protected] or see the notice posted at the End of the Line.

July 15, 2012 in Blog, Current News, Eco-Awareness & The Great Outdoors, Getting Involved

Knee Knacker just latest challenge for elite LV runner

Some of the world’s top ultra-marathoners will be participating in this Saturday’s infamous Knee Knacker, a 30-mile run from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove along the Baden Powell trail, and Hilary Ewart is excited to be amongst them.

It’s the second Knee Knacker for this Lynn Valley mom, and though she doesn’t consider herself a natural runner – “I’m not built for it, “ she claims – she says there is a mutual feeling of equality and respect at the starting line, regardless of ability.

“I’ve never been made to feel that I shouldn’t be there,” she said this week as she reflected on some of the races she’s tackled. “Though I sometimes question myself.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone questioning Hilary’s credentials when you look at her running CV. While she says she wasn’t particularly sporty as a youth (“Honestly, if I can do this, anyone can”), once she started running, there was no holding her back.

She started as a recreational jogger, then decided to join her husband Ian as he trained for a half-marathon. That was semi-successful – she liked to chat the whole way, which drove him nuts – but it was the start of a pursuit that would end up changing her life and how she lives it.

Her determination (or, in her own words, her “obsession”) kept pushing her to longer and more far-flung running adventures, encouraged on by the friendships she developed with other women keen to travel to races.

One of her favourite memories is accomplishing her very first marathon in her native Scotland, with her parents there to cheer her on. She still gets goosebumps recounting the pride with which her father congratulated her after her triumphant finish.

She’s raced in Big Sur, in Paris, and in Wales. Along the way, she became bored with road running and decided to try her hand – or her feet – at trail running. “I can still remember my first run with the Knee Knacker training group,” she recalls now. “It was humbling… it was really challenging.”

But this is clearly a woman who likes a challenge. In August 2010, she decided the 15 months ahead would include the Dirty Duo race in Lynn Canyon, the Diez Vista in Burnaby, her first Knee Knacker, and, to top it all off, a three-day, 85-mile run in Wales. While she was admittedly burnt out by the end of that time, she says the Welsh race was one of her best.

“I don’t know why, but I just felt wonderful,” she says. “At times along the way, I was feeling euphoric.”

People are always searching for that “runner’s high,” she says, although it tends to be elusive. It’s more common to encounter the lows when you’re running a tough course.

“You know the gremlins are there,” notes Hilary. “Sometimes they don’t appear; sometimes they spend the whole day with you. But you eventually learn that the bad feelings go away.”

Hilary’s health routine includes twice-weekly yoga, pre-race massages at Canopy Health, and keeping well fuelled during a run. She finds that her ‘away’ races can be easier, in that she’s divorced from her daily responsibilities and can be “a bit selfish,” focussing just on her challenge ahead.

She has spent this week getting over her jet lag from a trip to South America with husband Ian, catching up on her human resources job at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., and dealing with a few butterflies as she contemplates Saturday’s Knee Knacker – one of the toughest trail runs in North America.

She’s done it before, but not in the heat that is forecast for Saturday. Between Horseshoe Bay and Deep Cove, she’ll face 16,000 feet of vertical climb and descent, and hopes to complete the course in somewhere between seven to nine hours. “I’m a back of the packer,” she chuckles, saying she is built for endurance, not for speed.

Anyone who tackles this run is an elite athlete in our book, regardless of their final time, and at LynnValleyLife we wish all 200 runners good health and good spirits. We’ll be reporting back with Hilary’s experience, and tell you all about her next adventure – a six-day stage race in the Himalayas this fall!

– Peggy Trendell-Jensen, editor

Update: We checked in with Hilary on Sunday afternoon, and were delighted to hear she completed the race despite the heat and the record number of runners who dropped out along the way. Our congratulations to anyone brave enough to cross the starting line, and all those determined enough to reach the finish line!

 

July 12, 2012 in Blog, Current News, Eco-Awareness & The Great Outdoors, Notable Neighbours

Share your favourite walks and hikes

There is much to be said for the walks and hikes in and around Lynn Valley. So why don’t you help us say it?

We already have a walks and hikes section that’s a good starting point for people who want to get out for some fresh air. You’ll find links to local trail maps and safety tips, and a selection of narrated walks that feature some of Lynn Valley’s classic family forays.

But summertime is the time for exploring, so we’d like locals to help each other with some new adventure ideas. A dog walk that’s old hat to you might be quite undiscovered by someone just a few blocks away! Lynn Valley has so many trails, we would guess that no one knows about all of them – but collectively, we can put together quite a guidebook for people of all ages and fitness levels!

Please have a look at our descriptive walks (like this one) and if you’d like to share the details of a hike you’re familiar with, please send them our way – photos, too, if you can! We’ll edit it into a format we can share with your on-site Lynn Valley neighbours.

If you’ve got a favourite run or bike ride, we’d love to hear about those, too. Thanks for your help, and happy hiking!

– Peggy Trendell-Jensen, editor

July 8, 2012 in Blog, Eco-Awareness & The Great Outdoors, Getting Involved

Family needs your help to bring mom back to health

UPDATE! Come out to the Friday Night Concert in Lynn Valley Village on July 6 and register with Canadian Blood Services on the spot to see if you are a potential donor for Erica or another person in need. Read on to hear Erica’s story.

Now that the sun is shining, most parents and kids are thinking about beach days, play dates, and picnics in the park. Unfortunately, one Lynn Valley family’s summer dreams have been cut short in a manner as tragic as it was unexpected.

Erica Harris is a wife, a mom to two young sons, and a chiropractor who has spent time working at Canopy Health in Lynn Valley Village. She has owned her own clinic and built her career helping professional and amateur athletes reach their peak. But on June 6 she received word that her own health is facing a severe challenge. On that day she learned she has acute myelogenous leukemia, and was immediately admitted to hospital.

Two days later she started a week-long course of chemotherapy intended to wipe out the cancerous cells in her bone marrow. It was not successful. In fact, the percentage of leukemic cells in her blood was even higher than before.

Doctors now know that Erica is in a high-risk category that requires an even harsher round of chemo to wipe out all the cells in her marrow, good and bad alike (she is just finishing up these treatments in the next day or two). This sets the stage for a bone marrow transplant to follow, which will provide her with ‘seed’ cells to regrow the marrow she needs to produce healthy blood cells.

But there’s a problem. So far a suitable match has not been found for Erica, and her need is urgent and time-limited. That’s why her friends, family and colleagues are doing all they can to spread the word to encourage people to do the simple steps necessary to see if they are a potential match.

This involves a simple cheek swab (you can do it all by mail, or to save precious time, in person at a Canadian Blood Services centre). If a match is found, the vast majority of donations are made via a minimally invasive procedure involving blood collection; occasionally a more involved collection of marrow from the iliac crest is done under local or general anesthetic.

Of course, there are more people than Erica in need of these life-saving treatments, and her family hopes that others will benefit from the kindness of donors who may not be a direct match for Erica.

“Also, if you, and/or anyone you know, are able to donate blood or platelets – this is also very important,” says Erica’s husband Harley Harris. “Erica had a number of transfusions … in her first round of chemo, and we anticipate there will be many more transfusions during this next chemo treatment.   You never realize how important donating blood and platelets really is until you are receiving them.”

Harley’s great wish is to have Erica home again and tucking in their two boys at night. The two- and five-year-old lads are her biggest cheering squad, urging her ‘good’ cells on with chants of “Go, fighters, go!!”

But Erica’s ‘good’ cells need a helping hand, and that’s what neighbours are for. So please learn more about the donation process and how you can get involved. And please spread the word on your own Facebook pages and amongst your email lists.

We’ll be sure to update you with any other opportunities to give this Lynn Valley family a hand.  In the meantime, please continue to keep Erica, Harley and their boys in your thoughts.

– Peggy Trendell-Jensen, Editor

July 5, 2012 in Blog, Current News, Getting Involved, Notable Neighbours

Excellent Canada Day parade photos? Not here.

If you’ve come here looking for excellent photos of the Canada Day Parade, you’ve come to the wrong spot.

If that’s what you’re after, you’re advised to keep an eye out for the fine work of my former colleagues at the North Shore News. I, on the other hand, love parades but spend too much time misty-eyed and waving flags to be able to produce much in the way of a visual record.

Between the stirring salutes exchanged between the marching legionnaires and the uniformed members of the reviewing stand, the skirl of the pipes, the dashing Mounties in red serge, the old folks in their red-and-white bedecked electric scooters and the young ‘uns standing tall to sing O Canada, there is much to touch the sentimental heart. A parade celebrates all that is good in a community: the volunteers and creative souls; the rescue heroes and the service men and women; the non-profit organizations that help people around the block and around the world.

So I had much to occupy my hands this morning, given the need to alternate eye-dabbing with candy-catching, and frankly you are darned lucky to get any photos at all out of me.

But I did realize it was my duty to pull myself together long enough to snap a few shots of some of our neighbourhood entries, so here they are, along with my very best LynnValleyLife wishes for a happy Canada Day.

– Peggy Trendell-Jensen, Editor

Gillian Konst and Eric Miura from the LV Community Association float

LV Legion was on hand with their band

NVD Mayor Richard Walton was handing out candy when he wasn't pedalling his bike and trailer along the parade route.

 

 

July 1, 2012 in Blog, Community Events, Current News

Think nationally, act neighbourly

There’s no better place to celebrate your country than in your own community. Just like each  journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, building a great nation starts right on our own front porches.

So get together with your friends and family members young and old, and paint the town red (and white) this July 1. The fun starts with a Lions Club breakfast at 8 a.m. at Grand Boulevard Park, and you won’t want to miss the parade that starts from there at 10 – it’s the biggest Canada Day parade in the province!

Lynn Valley Community Association members are invited to dress in red and hop aboard the LVCA float. Meet up at 9:15 at the flagpole in the Grand Boulevard Park, and be part of the festivities.

After that, there is lots of fun to be had down at Waterfront Park, but you can stay local by celebrating from noon to 4 at Lynn Valley Village. The event will include entertainment, market booths, kids events and games, and even a contest for Best Canadian Attire!

Of course, there’s no better way to end the day than with a block party. For some food and fun ideas to get you started, check out this link here.

Happy Canada Day, neighbours! We’re lucky to live in such a wonderful pocket of paradise.

June 27, 2012 in Blog, Community Events, Current News

Prize-winning temperance essay from 1928 still relevant today

FROM LYNN O’MALLEY: It has become abundantly apparent that you can’t count on June for good weather. But the end of the month does bring one thing you can depend on: grad ceremonies, photo opps and – unfortunately – the worry that some kids will take things too far and ‘celebrate’ with an open bottle in hand.

So this month’s launch of Canada’s Temperance Foundation (CTF) is timely. Started by a Victoria man and V-P’d by his addiction-experienced friend, it advocates “abstinence or retraint” in the use of alcohol and drugs. It invites Canadians to take a pledge in support of the cause.

“In ancient Greece,” reads the CTF website, “temperance was considered a virtue and was obtained when one became enlightened through harmonious living.”

Fair enough – who can argue with harmonious living? But in the interests of fair play, I do want to point out that the fine awareness-raising work of the CTF is building on the earlier labours of Nora Newman, Anna Flodin, James Simmonds and other Lynn Valley schoolchildren who competed in the annual essay competitions sponsored by the local Women’s Temperance Union in the early 1900s.

In 1928, young James won a $5 gold coin for the following second-place essay. (Each year the winner received the David Spencer Cup, which was often displayed at Lynn Valley School.)

We bring you this excerpt of James’s 84-year-old essay, along with our heartfelt wishes for a safe and happy grad week throughout the valley. We can’t speak to the veracity of his scientific claims, but we do hope today’s kids pay attention when he says that by drinking, you are “lowering the grade of your mind… (and) dulling your higher sense.”

***

Alcohol has great effects on health and length of life. If a man drinks he is sick more, and dies sooner than a sober man.

Alcohol causes fatty degeneration and fibroid degeneration of certain of the tissues. In fatty degeneration, little drops of fat or oil gather in the cells which gradually become small bags of oil.

When the muscles of the heart change to fat, they lose their strength. The kidneys and nerve fibres are also affected in this way.

Fibroid degeneration affects the heart, liver, kidneys, arteries and brain. The arteries are affected by the lime that is deposited on the walls. This makes them very brittle and narrow, so the blood can hardly make its way through.

Alcohol affects the brain. It causes paralysis and insanity. A man who takes three ounces of alcohol each day for twelve days could add figures only three-fifths as fast as when he takes no alcohol. This effect lasts for at least forty-eight hours.

A drunkard is not the only person who suffers from the result of his habit. Drink is responsible for a large number of crimes. The worst feature of the poverty caused by alcohol is not the fact that the drunkard himself suffers, but the fact that the innocent person suffers far more than he does. Many companies and railways will not employ anyone who drinks. During the Great War most of the principal nations of the world forbade the manufacture of alcoholic drinks.

Six main things you do if you take alcohol are: that you are threatening the physical structure of your stomach, your liver, your kidneys, your heart, your blood vessels, your nerves and your brain; that you are unquestionably lessening your power to work in any field, be it physical, intellectual or artistic; that you are in some measure lowering the grade of your mind, dulling your higher sense and taking the edge off your morals; that you are distinctly lessening your chances of maintaining your health and living to a good old age; that you are adding yourself to the number of those whose habits cause more suffering and misery, disease and death, than do all other causes combined; that you are fastening on yourself a habit that will lead many business men to refuse to employ you.

Alcohol is a poison, a deceiver and a wrecker of man and homes.”

 

 

 

 

June 15, 2012 in Blog, Current News, Looking Back, School News

Circling helicopters part of Lynn Valley life

FROM THE EDITOR: The sound of sirens isn’t too unusual in Lynn Valley, especially during the summer months when it’s often assumed emergency responders are en route to a mishap in Lynn Canyon.

While those occurrences can sometimes be tragic, we’re lucky to live in an area where emergency vehicles are generally responding to accidents or medical incidents rather than high crime and skulduggery. But the noise of a helicopter circling overhead late at night recently prompted one LynnValleyLife reader to ask “If we hear a chopper at night, does that mean a serial killer is loose in the woods?”

Cpl. Richard De Jong

An excellent question, we thought. So we took it to Cpl. Richard De Jong, the North Van RCMP media relations officer who is always happy to help answer our queries. In short, the answer is ‘no’ – it could be up there for any number of reasons.

There are two helicopters in the Lower Mainland that are jointly owned by the RCMP and other police agencies, ICBC, and the provincial government. Available 24 hours a day, they are dubbed Air 1 and Air 2 (names reminiscent of those in a high-action movie, or, alternately, The Cat in the Hat).

The choppers are deployed in a wide variety of situations, from high-speed traffic chases, to locating lost individuals, to providing support in potentially dangerous situations – such as the recent capture of an individual being sought for a double homicide in Burnaby. Cpl. De Jong says that along with the pilot, there is always a police officer on board in case the helicopter has to set down to make or assist in an arrest.

“To the officer on the street who is in a foot chase or a vehicle chase, having a ‘partner’ up in the sky that can move quickly and have a bird’s eye view of the developing situation… can be life-saving,” said Cpl. De Jong. “Often, just having the police helicopter show up at a volatile scene or chase has a defusing effect.”

That said, in our area it is often visibility more than volatility that is the issue. Lynn Valley, he notes, is in a mountainous area, and often the reason a helicopter is brought in is to help locate individuals lost in our back country.

At night, Air 1 and Air 2 are invaluable because they are equipped with special lights that can detect movement and heat in complete darkness (sorry, parents, they are not available to help you track errant teens who may have missed curfew, or nab that bear that keeps feasting on your fruit trees!)

For more information, and a narrated audio-visual clip of Air 1 on patrol, visit here. And rest assured, when you hear those distinctive chopper noises in the sky, the chances that it’s due to an axe-wielding bogey man are slim!

– Peggy Trendell-Jensen is the editor of LynnValleyLife.

 

 

 

 

June 8, 2012 in Blog, Current News, Eco-Awareness & The Great Outdoors, Governance and Services

Many a tune to hear in June

Whatever your budget or artistic preference, you’ll hear music in the air this June.

For parents, of course, there are the omnipresent end-of-term school concerts and piano recitals. But that’s not all that’s on the symphonic smorgasbord this month.

Next week kicks off with the Lynn Valley Black Bear Band’s tribute to music of stage and screen on Monday, June 11.  Come out to the Lynn Valley United Church venue to listen to some tunes from your favourite flicks and support your very own community band. Admission is by donation, and the fun kicks off at 7:30.

You’ll be treated to a free evening recital at Lynn Valley Library on Wednesday, June 13, when the Chamber West Woodwind Quintet – including oboe-playing Lynn Valley native Lisa Jensen! – comes to perform works by Ravel and others. Start time is 7 p.m; visit here for more details.

Wrap up your week up at the Lynn Valley Legion, which is featuring blues singer Taylor James and her band on Saturday the 16th.

Taylor has played all over Europe and the U.S, and she’s opened for performers such as Jeff Healy, Colin James and Chilliwack. She recently travelled with other musicians to sing for the Canadian Forces based in Greece, Sarajevo, Egypt and the Persian Gulf.

Tickets are $15 and available at the Legion to adults over 19. Doors open at 7, music starts at 8!

June 6, 2012 in Blog, Community Events