Rocky View resident Sarah Leete, 69, is taking the reins against cancer.
A survivor, Leete recently started a campaign against the disease with the help of her 22-year-old Thoroughbred Mare, Miss Dixie, and her loaner gelding Quarter Horse, Lord Gord.
This summer, Leete and her mare donned pink, while the gelding, decked out in blue and wearing a foam finger, attended several local events including Water Valley Days, the Dogpound Stampede, the Wild Pink Yonder fundraiser in Cremona and the Cochrane Labour Day Parade, in hopes of raising awareness about breast and prostate cancer.
“In the Wild Pink Yonder (event) people were clapping as I went down the street,” said Leete, who gives out promotional material during the events.
“Making the effort paid off.”
Leete, a lifelong horsewoman who has never before been in a parade, was motivated by several circumstances, including the death of a neighbour from prostate cancer.
“I just saw… what a hellish time it is for the people and the caregivers,” said Leete, of her neighbours’ experience.
“It is a horrible, horrible demise.”
A display set up during June in a Cochrane grocery store to raise awareness about prostate cancer gave Leete the final push.
“They had all sorts of badges and materials,” said Leete, who lives in the Cochrane area. “That was what kind of triggered me to think I could do something with horses.”
Since then, Leete has been given support from local businesses and residents, something for which she is deeply appreciative.
Leete’s humour served her well during her bout with colon cancer in 2003, and that attitude lingers in her campaign.
Leete’s slogans, printed on a sign on the horses, reflect that humour with Lord Gord’s reading: “Hey guys, do not linger, get the finger from your doctor” and Miss Dixie’s saying: “A mammogram may not be glam, but as you live, think on the alternative.”
Leete says it is important to take the opportunity to help others and encourages people to do so.
“Carpe Diem,” she said. “Just go for it, do what you can.”
