From Patient to Powerhouse
Five years ago this fall, Lisa Marino was 25, healthy, and building a career she loved as a yoga and HIIT instructor when a routine check turned her world upside down.
A lump she almost dismissed led to an ultrasound, a mammogram, a biopsy — and a diagnosis of Stage II breast cancer. In the middle of a global pandemic, in the middle of her twenties, Lisa suddenly found herself a patient at North York General (NYG).
What followed was fast and intense: chemotherapy began just two weeks later, eight rounds in total, followed by surgery two days before her 26th birthday.
Through it all, Lisa credits NYG’s Breast Clinic and chemotherapy team with turning an overwhelming experience into one she now describes as “the absolute best of a horrible situation.”
She remembers the nurses who remembered her, the small kindnesses that made a frightening process feel human, and a care team that made space for her fear, her humour, and her questions.
Movement had always been Lisa’s anchor, and it became her lifeline during treatment. That same instinct to move — and to turn strength into action — soon turned into giving back. What started as a single yoga class fundraiser a year after her diagnosis grew, year after year, into a full community event drawing in local businesses, sponsors, and volunteers from Toronto’s wellness community. Last spring, that grassroots effort raised more than $5,000 for NYG.
This October, Lisa is bringing that same energy to Rally in the Ravine.
Now five years cancer-free — though still returning to NYG for ongoing care — Lisa has registered for Rally with a team of her own, and she’s aiming higher than ever. For her, Rally isn’t just another fundraiser; it’s a chance to bring her entire community into the place that changed her life, and to channel the same movement-first spirit that carried her through treatment into a shared act of giving back.
“Every year, my community shows up for me without ever really knowing where that support goes,” Lisa says. “Rally is the first time I get to close that loop — to actually bring them into the same space as the doctors and nurses who saved my life, and let them see exactly who they’ve been supporting all along. I can’t wait to just be there together, moving as one big group, for a hospital that means everything to me.”