About ten years ago, in 2015, Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer. A social worker she was seeing at the time recommended Hope & Cope, and she signed up and discovered a space where she could learn about herself, connect with others going through the same thing, and breathe a little easier.
“I thought it was amazing,” she says. “I was a member for about a year during treatment. I used the Wellness Centre, and when I started to get better, I stepped back to make room for someone else.”
In fall 2024, Kate’s cancer returned. The breast cancer had metastasized, meaning treatment would now be a permanent part of her life rather than a chapter she could close.
“When my cancer metastasized, I joined again. And I thought, ‘Oh, well, it sucks having cancer again, but at least I get to go to Hope & Cope!’”
When she returned, she had a different perspective. She knew what the organization offered. She also knew she wanted to give something back.
“I was taking so much from the organization, learning so much about myself and the people around me that I wanted to offer something,” she says.
Kate is a professional writer and playwright. She describes her work as “an autobiographical mix of comedy and tragedy.” She gives creative writing workshops across Quebec, and offering one at Hope & Cope felt like a natural fit.
A Workshop Built on One Rule: There Are No Expectations
Kate facilitates Write Your Own Story, a monthly workshop that participants can join in person at the Wellness Centre or online. Sessions last about an hour. The group is kept to around ten people, not to limit access but to leave enough time for everyone to share.
Every session starts the same way: a few minutes of free writing.
“You just write whatever is on your mind,” Kate explains. “There are no rules. You can write about how you’re feeling. You can write a grocery list. You can write, ‘I don’t know what to say’ over and over again. It’s just about getting into the mindset of expressing yourself.”
The free writing is followed by a prompt or exercise. In one early session, Kate gave participants a list-based activity: write down five things you’ve experienced and five things you’ve observed, then choose one and expand on it.
“I find that’s a really great way of discovering stories in yourself you didn’t know you wanted to tell,” she says.
Sharing is encouraged but never required. Some participants read full stories and others write one sentence and stop there. Kate considers both equally valid.
“That’s enough. That’s all that they can do at that point. And that’s perfect.”
“You Can Write”
The most common thing Kate hears at the door is some version of: “I’m not a writer.”
Her response is always the same.
“You can write. It’s really a matter of throwing that fear away and not writing with an audience in your head,” she tells them.
She draws a parallel to her own process as a playwright. When she’s drafting a new play, she doesn’t picture it on stage with an audience watching. That image would paralyze her. Instead, she writes because she needs to.
“You write because you have a story to tell, and that story has to come out,” she says.
She also compares it to physical fitness.
“Writing is a muscle,” she explains, “It gets stronger with use. If you walk into a gym and start lifting heavy weights without any experience, you risk injury. Real progress happens by starting slow, being gentle with yourself, and building gradually.”
Spelling, grammar, and style? They can always be corrected, and she encourages people to not let rules hold them back.
“Write the way you speak,” Kate says. “If you just put ideas onto paper, you’re already doing a great job.”
Writing From the Inside
What makes Kate’s workshop unusual is that she isn’t just a facilitator looking in from the outside. She is living with metastatic cancer right now, managing her condition with ongoing medication, and showing up every month to lead a room full of people in a similar situation.
She is thoughtful about the energy it requires. When her cancer first metastasized, she knew she wasn’t in a position to give workshops. “I wouldn’t be benefiting those around me,” she says. She waited until she felt strong enough.
Now that she does, she believes her experience creates something in the room that a facilitator without cancer simply couldn’t replicate.
“When you have cancer, you’re kind of in a secret club,” she says. “You know a little bit of the language. You know how it feels to have your loved ones worried about you. It gives a little wink towards the other participants, like saying, ‘I know where you’re coming from. We’re all here together.’”
She is deliberate about not over-sharing her own story during sessions. The hour belongs to the participants, not to her.
“My name is Kate. I’m a professional writer. I also have cancer. Let’s go.”
Storytelling as a Survival Tool
Kate’s relationship with writing long predates her cancer diagnosis. She kept diaries through her childhood and teenage years, and credits that habit with helping her survive that time in her life.
When cancer arrived, she fell back into the same pattern. She began working on a comic book titled Dude, Where’s My Boob? during her first diagnosis as a way of processing everything that was happening.
“It gave me something to put all the crazy stuff into context,” she says. “It helped me separate myself from the pain and the anxiety and the stress. Yes, this is terrible, but it’s great material for my comic book!”
She describes storytelling as a way of gaining clarity on what you’re living. Writing something down takes it out of your head and puts it somewhere you can see it. It gives shape to experiences that might otherwise feel overwhelming and formless.
That is exactly what she hopes participants take home from her workshop.
“Sometimes you sit down and you write, ‘I don’t know what to write about, I’m just feeling kind of depressed,’ and you find it just brainstorms and it gets you out of your funk,” she says. “Or sometimes it gets you deeper into it, but you’re able to see a purpose in what’s happening. Writing your story helps give you clarity on what you’re living.”
An Open Door
The workshop is open to anyone living with cancer or supporting someone who is, at any stage of their journey: newly diagnosed, mid-treatment, or well past it. No writing experience is required, and all materials are provided, though Kate encourages participants to bring their own notebook and favourite pen if they have one.
“When you bring your own book, you’re more inspired to keep writing in it when you go home,” she says.
For anyone on the fence, Kate says: don’t wait until you feel ready. You don’t need to know what you want to say. You just need to show up and start.
“You don’t write because you want to become a millionaire or because you want accolades and prestige,” she says. “You write because you have a story to tell, and that story has got to come out.”
