The B-Strong Cap
Prior to receiving her first radiation treatment which ran 5 days a week for 6 weeks, Lindsay designed a baseball cap with her mom and a friend in anticipation of hair loss. She wanted the funds raised from hat sales to help out others fighting similar battles. The B represents a number of things including Bolger. The “B” was designed to incorporate the cancer ribbon. Lindsay wasn’t a fan of wearing a bandana or scarf on her head to cover hair loss. She always liked ball caps and felt comfortable wearing them. The initial order was for 200 caps and Lindsay thought it would be great if these could be bought by family and local friends.
When Lindsay was attending St Francis Xavier University, the school decided to purchased 300 B-Strong caps for the varsity athletes to demonstrate their support and care for Lindsay. She had played on the both varsity rugby and volleyballs teams. The news of this purchase by St FXÂ spread quickly in the community and Lindsay was soon contacted and interviewed on campus by Atlantic TV. A few days after this taped interview aired she received a call from CTV asking her to travel to Halifax for yet another interview. She said she would love to help but was too weak to travel the 2 1/2 hours each way for this. So CTV AM assembled a remote camera crew in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia and some friends drove Lindsay 45 minutes to do an on-street live interview with Ravi Baichwal. This tremendous exposure lit up the home phone for weeks, not to mention the volume of emails with orders from all across Canada. Some people just wanted to support the cause and others were battling a brain tumour. To date, over 5,000 caps have been sold across North America. All funds raised by B-Strong are targeted towards brain tumour research. Over $580,000 has been raised by B-Strong and donated to the following hospital foundations: Princess Margaret Hospital, Sick Kids, Sunnybrook and Montreal Neurological.
There are times in life when one is faced with unpredictable challenges. In my case, it was a brain tumour. Challenges like these test one’s strength and courage, but most of all they test how one accepts and deals with these. The only way to deal with these is in a positive way. This experience has totally made me realize that with the right attitude and support, you can truly find a positive view for anything.
Lindsay Bolger, 2005
Order your B-Strong Caps for only $20 each. All proceeds go towards our on-going support of brain tumour research.
