Help us fund the next era of Rethink: The Giving Circle
What is the Giving Circle?
The Giving Circle is a collective of visionary leaders investing in Rethink’s next era. We are building a community of 25 change makers, each committing to raise $25,000 toward our shared goal of $625,000.
Meet our founding cohort of leaders who are helping bring Rethink’s next era to life.
The Founding Cohort of The Giving Circle
Tamara Bahry
Why I’m helping fund Rethink’s next era
After my own breast cancer diagnosis in 2021, I experienced firsthand how important trusted support and connection can be. Rethink became a meaningful part of my own recovery and healing. I’m passionate about storytelling, advocacy and making positive change. Over the past few years, I’ve been proud to collaborate with Rethink on educational content and unique practical support for women during radiation therapy and raise much needed funds for their mission. As an artist and philanthropist, I’m deeply committed to supporting women, community and meaningful causes. The vision for the Rethink House feels bold, human, and deeply needed, especially for younger women diagnosed with breast cancer. I also love that it will be engaging younger women like my own daughter in education and risk reduction. I’m proud to support this next chapter as part of the Founding Giving Circle.
Amanda Alvaro
Why I’m helping fund Rethink’s next era
I began raising funds for Rethink Breast Cancer not long after losing my mom to metastatic breast cancer. What started as a way to honour her memory became something much bigger. Over the years, supporting Rethink has been part of my own healing journey, but it’s also been driven by a simple belief: younger women facing breast cancer deserve to be seen, heard, and supported.
Today, I’m proud to serve as Chair of the Board of Rethink, the organization that was the first to put younger women on the breast cancer agenda in a meaningful way. Rethink recognized that their experiences were different, that important gaps existed in care and support, and then got to work building a community that could help change that.
Now, we find ourselves at another important moment.
The world has changed. Breast cancer has changed. The needs of younger women have changed. Yet too many of the systems designed to support them haven’t evolved at the same pace.
That’s why I’m helping Rethink build what comes next. Every woman deserves information, connection, advocacy, and a community that understands her. Together. we are asking more women to join us on the next phase of our mission because a disease that impacts 1 in 8 women will only be changed by a community powerful enough to meet it.
Lori Sugarman-Li
Why I’m helping fund Rethink’s next era
Rethink meant so much to me in my younger years. As a young marketer, I loved Rethink’s savvy approach to educating and empowering women and was proud to be a part of the charity’s early success. As one of their first committee members, I threw myself into volunteering my time to Rethink not only because of the cause itself and Rethink’s bold approach, but because it created a real sense of community, purpose, and connection at such a formative time in my life. Today I’m grateful to be in a position where I can give back philanthropically. When MJ shared the vision for the Rethink Pink House, it immediately felt like a meaningful and important next chapter. I’m proud to be part of the Founding Giving Circle and help bring this vision to life.
Perry Jongsma
Why I’m helping fund Rethink’s next era
This small but mighty charity has always meant so much to me. Like so many Canadians, breast cancer affected my family personally. And as an entrepreneur myself, I have always appreciated how much heart, soul and sweat goes into creating the kind of impact Rethink’s had over the years. I was a Founding Board member of Rethink, attracted to MJ’s fresh energy and Rethink’s unique approach to the cause. When she approached me in 2001 about starting Rethink, I was an immediate yes to providing the start-up donation. And when MJ shared the vision for the Rethink House with me earlier this year, it was another immediate yes for me to get involved again. How full circle and inspiring to be a part of their next era and helping build what “rethinking” breast cancer looks like now.
Tom DeCoteau
Why I’m helping fund Rethink’s next era
I’ve supported my sister’s vision for Rethink since day one. My wife, Jennifer, and I were early committee members, working our connections, organizing fundraising events in Vancouver and just so proud to help with the west coast presence. I’ve watched Rethink evolve over the years and have always admired the organization’s willingness to challenge convention and think differently. The vision for the Rethink House feels like a bold and exciting next step — one rooted in community, innovation, and real impact. While I love supporting something that is part of my late mom’s legacy as her untimely loss is what propelled MJ all those years ago, I love that Rethink’s next era will be relevant to my daughters, my nieces and has a focus on engaging their generation. I’m honoured to support this next era as part of the Founding Giving Circle.
Dr. Christine Brezden-Masley
Why I’m helping fund Rethink’s next era
I’ve been involved in Rethink for well over a decade and proudly champion their unique role in the breast cancer space. As an oncologist, one of the easiest referrals I make is to Rethink because I know my younger patients will find something incredibly important there: trusted information, support, advocacy, and a sense that they are not facing this experience alone. The vision for the Rethink House immediately resonated with me as a natural and much-needed evolution of that work. I’m honoured to be part of the Founding Giving Circle.
Debbie Legault
Why I’m helping fund Rethink’s next era
When I picked up the phone in March of 2019 and heard my 27-year-old daughter Adrienne say “Mom…mom it’s cancer” my world changed forever. I thought I knew the challenges she would face but there are huge differences between a twenty-something woman and someone older dealing with so many aspects of the diagnosis and treatment and both of us felt lost.
Then my daughter found Rethink Breast Cancer and with it, a place she felt she belonged, a place that spoke to her experience, a place where she could sit in a room and see others who looked like her. For us, the breast cancer diagnosis came with a Before, a During, and an After and they each have their unique challenges. Rethink Breast Cancer works to address those challenges to provide young women like my daughter with information, advocacy and community and that’s why I am hoping to raise funds to help with their next steps.