Nothing could’ve prevented Gillian Bentley-Senior from celebrating her 50th birthday “like a boss” …. … not breast cancer, not the Covid-19 pandemic and certainly not the 2023 ice-storm, none was able to dampened the celebration that took place at the Sarto Desnoyers Community Center in Dorval on Saturday, April 8.
Granted the celebration came five years later but you can’t fault Gillian and her family for the delay. They had things to take care of… life issues.
The biggest of those issues, revealed itself on her 50th birthday on March 27, 2018, when the final biopsy confirmed that she indeed, as feared, had breast cancer.
According to her husband of well over 35 years, Delroy Senior, that diagnosis provoked a family response, as he and their two children Cyrus and Zarya circled their wagons around Gillian and for the next two and a half years, held the fort over the debilitating disease.
On that special night when more than 200-and-something guests turned out to share a moment with Gillian, Delroy was the first take the microphone. He had a lot to get off his chest. He talked about lasting love and togetherness and the support and resilience that guided his family through the toughest of times.
For her part, Gillian spent much of the evening basking in the glory of the event.
She told the CONTACT that five years ago, she couldn’t even think about planning her 50th birthday, such was the focus on the impending cancer diagnosis.
“Once it (the diagnosis) came, it turned me into a warrior: “I told cancer, you chose the wrong damn bitch to mess with.” Also, I made my (struggle) public., chronicling every stage on Instagram, giving other women a chance to share the experience.”
“It was tough,” she says. But two and a half years and nine highly invasive surgeries later, Gillian says she emerged victorious over the disease.
“ I was badly burnt and heavily scarred by the treatments but I came out of it, as my doctor says, with NED, (no evidence of the disease) today.”
The key, she said was that she never stopped fighting and believing.
As a matter of fact nine days after the first surgery, she was in the family car on the way to Buffalo to witness, Cyrus’ graduation from Canisius College, where he attended on a half scholarship.
“I told my doctor, I had to be there. He thought I was crazy, but I had to experience my son walking across that stage receiving his certificate,” she reminisced.
Gillian added that the college also recognized her efforts in being and offered a little tribute to her and the family.
Today, Gillian stands as an advocate of breast cancer awareness. She devotes a lot of time mentoring, advising, standing with women who are battling the disease.
“There’re so many in our community, who are going through it…. young and old. My message is always the same: it’s not a death sentence. Find support, like I had from so many women across Montreal and beyond.”
Her campaign: “Feel It On The First,” reminds women about the benefits of self-examination on the first of every month.
“Through it all, the one thing I have to say is: your mentality helps, that’s why I wanted to party like a boss and a queen.”
She did, sashaying among the tables and guests drawn from an extended list of lifelong friends; grooving to the music provided by her son, Cyrus one of a line-up of deejays on the scene and swaying to the serenading sweetness of local Diva, Kayla Allen.
There was something divine about the evening, Gillian Bentley-Senior says, after all, when the power outage ice-storm which started on Wednesday, seemed poised to crush the Saturday night party, whatdoyouknow… her house, where dozens of family members were to gather, was the only one, on the street, that had its power restored on Thursday.
The end result was a party like no other party, celebrating a woman who took on breast cancer, survived and thrived and remains ready to help others.
