麻豆传媒AV

For the second year in a row, cancer survivor Dana Lavoie has topped the province in the Girls' Night In fundraising initiative.

Canadian Cancer Society Battlefords Unit manager Janice Foley presented her with an iPad Mini Thursday.

"This is the second year in a row that Dana has realized this top achievement," said Foley.

In 2012 Lavoie raised $2,125. This year she raised $2,330.

Girls' Night In raised $6,735 province-wide in 2013. Of that, $3,835 was raised here in the Battlefords district. Two other events were held by Joanne Hopkin and Diane Jones, said Foley.

Lavoie was diagnosed with breast cancer on Oct. 14, 2011. She is now officially finished with treatments, but her personal experience with breast cancer led her to get involved with fundraising for breast cancer research, specifically the Girls' Night In fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society in 2012.

At that point she wasn't finished all her treatments, nor was she back at work, so she realized doing an actual event would be too much to put on her plate then.

Accordingly, Lavoie organized a non-fundraiser fundraiser. On the Facebook message promoting it, she stated participants would not need to "buy expensive dinner tickets," there wouldn't be a silent auction and participants wouldn't "need to worry about what to wear or getting a babysitter." She set a goal to raise a total of $500.

Within 24 hours, she had reached her goal. And the donations kept coming. Lavoie would eventually raise a $2,125 from a total of 30 donations. Lavoie ended up raising more than anyone else in Saskatchewan. She was accordingly presented with an iPad from the Canadian Cancer Society in the Battlefords at a surprise ceremony at her workplace at Innovation Credit Union.

She's been back to work for a year now, and she has continued raising money through the Girls Night In event. It sounds like she plans to do a third.

Last year, the iPad she won got commandeered by her son. This year, she's keeping it for herself. Next year, she says, if she wins a prize again, she will have the Cancer Society make a draw from amongst everyone who donates through her.

A large crowd of her fellow workers turned out for this year's presentation of the iPad, giving her a round of applause.