Each time I think it really is about time I stopped doing the neighbourhood canvass for one charity after another, that I've done it for far too long and it's about time someone else takes over the chore, I think of my area captain for the Cancer Society canvass and relent.

I have no idea how long she has been involved in helping out with the canvass annually as a volunteer. I do know that my own history with door-to-door canvassing goes back 40 years, for various causes, and I'm sick of it. Of going out, knocking on peoples' doors in the various neighbourhoods where we've lived over the years, and asking them to part with a few dollars in exchange for a charitable, tax-deductible receipt.

I am now 75 years old, and although I feel vigorous and remain in fairly good physical shape whereas others my age and younger haven't got my good fortune, I do feel it's time to step down. Yet she's chugging along, at ten years my senior. I recall how she appeared when she took over the position from someone who had earlier been involved; she looked robust and attractive ten years ago. Now, she looks more drawn and elderly, and although I know she keeps herself actively engaged in her community and with her family, she is struggling.

Of course it doesn't help that she was diagnosed several years ago with age-acquired leukemia. She has learned to balance her condition against her lifestyle and she manages exceedingly well. She no longer takes any prescribed medications because they made her so ill she felt the cure was far worse than the threat her illness posed to her. They were all gradually dropped, her doctors puzzled by her body's rejection of them all, and its seeming ability to get along without them. She no longer even takes the chemotherapy pills because of how they ravaged her, and now sails along with quarterly hospital visits, unless an event occurs that requires more immediate attention.

When she feels tired and ill she simply rests until she feels sufficiently recovered to carry on. She lives alone, in her own house located on a nearby street adjacent to ours, where she has lived since her husband's death from cancer. He was older than her, but it was she who had experienced the first serious illness, then recovered. Her daughter keeps in constant contact with her. Her daughter-in-law works as a geriatric psychiatric nurse.

She remains involved, engaged and interested in everything around her. She wakes each morning with an agenda, and manages to see herself through all that she has scheduled for herself, mostly with relative ease. She still dresses stylishly, taking great care with her wardrobe, her jewellery, and is poised and attractive.

She continues to drive herself anywhere she means to go, including delivering the canvass kits to her various canvassers. With her inspiration, how could I, in my situation, younger than her, decide to refuse to be involved with my community's needs?