September 21, 2005 Source: Simon Fraser University:
http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/news_releases/archives/news09210502.htm Terry Fox medal recipient overcomes pain to pursue studies Contact Cheryl Helgason, 604.454.8688 (cell) Marianne Meadahl, Media & PR, 604.291.4323 September 21, 2005 There were times when Cheryl Helgason would have liked to throw her arms in the air and shout to the sky, “Why me?”. But the SFU graduate student, who suffers from psoriatic arthritis, a debilitating disease that causes overwhelming exhaustion and crippling joint disintegration, couldn't muster the energy. At 37, she lost her husband to an aneurysm, leaving her to care for her infant daughter as an unemployed mom. “I couldn't get out of a chair, I couldn't slice bread or open a door. At the time, I was terrified,” recalls Helgason, the 2005 winner of the Terry Fox gold medal awarded annually to a student who demonstrates courage in adversity and dedication to society, as exemplified by Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope. Helgason will receive the award at the university's Terry Fox day celebration on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 11:40 a.m. in Convocation Mall, prior to the annual run/walk. This year's campus-wide event marks both the 25th anniversary of the former SFU student's Marathon of Hope and the 40th anniversary of SFU, and is expected to draw a record number of participants. Before the disease hit in 1996 Helgason used to shimmy up telephone poles for B.C. Tel. “I knew I had to have a plan. But all I wanted to do was go to bed and pull the covers over my head,” she recalls. Her plan included attending classes at Kwantlen College while surviving off a widow's pension. She transferred to the University College of the Fraser Valley and finished a double major in history and sociology, garnering a 3.85 GPA and numerous academic awards. Helgason was soon able to control her pain with a breakthrough medication, enabling her to consider a masters degree in history. Now 46, her thesis is based on her own experience of having gone from high school in Burnaby into a typically female clerical job at B.C. Tel. A keen environmentalist, Helgason is a founding member of Knouff Lakes preservation society near Kamloops. She is also a volunteer at the BC Arthritis Society.“We don't always have a choice about what gets thrown at us in life, but we sure have a choice about how we are going to deal with it,” she says. - 30 -
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