to think at an event where lots of people have lost relatives to cancer you mourn the loss of your dog??

[girlsyearapart]

Hi I did a 10k run yesterday for Cancer Research.
People are given a sign to put on their back to write who they are running in memory of.
Many heartbreaking messages about lost Mothers/Fathers/Children/Sisters etc. Lots of people had birth and death dates showing very short lives lost to cancer.
Anyway just about to start the race and look at woman on front of me who had a photo of her dog on her back with its name..
Well I'm a major dog lover but isn't this totally insensitive to others there who had lost relatives??
Only part of me thinking that I'm BU is that the woman was raising money which would go to actual people with cancer.
So what do you lot think?

'but at the end of the day, losing a pet is nothing like losing a child, no matter how much you love the pet.'

I think most people would agree with that, although a person who had lost a beloved pet and had never had a child might find it hard to understand that completely.

Still, the veracity of your statement is actually not the point. The point is that the attitude you start with informs your behaviour, your thoughts, and how offended/unoffended you are. You can choose to see the love and loss for what it is, or you can choose to put it in a hierachy. What brings brings better feelings and peace of mind?

she is raising the money at the end of the day and the t shirts don't tell the whole story, maybe the woman herself has cancer or something and thought it would be a good idea????

nobody is comparing losing a dog to losing a child. I don't suppose the woman with the dog on her back was either. I guess she had lost the dog to cancer, and that was the impetus for the run, and what inspired her to do it, so why not put a picture up?

it is only offensive if you look at it and think 'you are trying to compete with my grief' or 'you are trying to compare your grief to mine'. Which is missing the point of the whole thing - the point of the run is to raise money for charity, and that, this woman was doing.

I hate this whole "more worthy" thing. Whatever someones reason for running, it's valid and they did something fantastic.

whether their 99yr old grandad had died of cancer (in which case some people might be saying "what are they grieving for, he was 99, we all have to die sometime") or whether a child, friend or work colleague, or pet. IT DOES NOT MATTER. It matters not to me whether you have a photo of your deceased relative, or their name, or nothing, you just go and do it. If I do it in memory of someone dear WITHOUT their name and photo on display, it is nonetheless done in their name. Do you say "excuse me why are you running without a photo, we need to know who died"

grrrrrr