Over the last 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of standing beside some of the most compassionate and courageous people I have ever known. Advocates, survivors, physicians, nurse practitioners, researchers, technologists, policymakers, and supporters helped push awareness, conversations, and policies forward in ways many of us once thought would take decades.

More women across Canada are now informed they have dense breasts. More provinces lowered the self-referral age to 40 for mammograms. Clinics and hospitals across the country began offering supplemental screening. More women began understanding their risk and advocating for themselves.

We also saw recognition by the federal government of the need for a more accountable and evidence-based guideline-making process in Canada and, at last, meaningful reform and replacement of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care after years of advocacy from this community.

But what stays with me most after ten years is not just the progress. It’s the people.

I think about the women who trusted us with their stories. The messages from women who said information from DBC helped them find their cancer earlier. The friendships built through advocacy. The people who kept showing up, even while facing cancer themselves.

And I think about the advocates we lost along the way: Ann Hill, Libby Porter, Sharon Olson, Sharon MacNeill, Janet Gallant, and Cathy Burke. Their courage and compassion helped shape this movement in ways that can never fully be measured. They are woven into the heart of DBC, and they always will be.

There are so many incredible individuals who were integral to this journey over the last ten years, far too many to name individually. Please know how deeply grateful I am for every contribution, conversation, act of support, and voice that moved this work forward.

I am deeply grateful to the many experts, including Dr. Paula Gordon, whose leadership and unwavering dedication to women’s health helped create meaningful change across Canada. Thank you as well to Drs. Jean Seely, Anna Wilkinson, Sheila Appavoo, and Martin Yaffe for your research, advocacy, and all you have done to improve the well-being of Canadians.

I want to acknowledge Eevin-Leigh Smith, whose creativity and design work helped create the visual identity of DBC, bringing so much of our advocacy and awareness work to life over the years.

There were many moments when this work felt overwhelming. Times when progress felt painfully slow and it seemed like no one was listening. But this community kept going. People continued to show up. And because of that collective effort, awareness grew, policies changed, and lives were changed.

Ten years later, what I feel most is gratitude.

Gratitude for every volunteer, donor, advocate, healthcare professional, policymaker, and supporter who helped carry this movement forward. Gratitude for every person who shared a post, spoke to a journalist, met with government officials, or trusted us with their personal story.

This has never been my work alone. It has always belonged to all of us.

While there is still more work ahead, I truly believe together we have changed the landscape of breast cancer screening in Canada. I hope every person who has been part of this journey knows they helped make that happen.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for walking this road with me.

Jennie Dale