When Margaret (Marg) Pocock and Ayesha Shaikh met as co-workers teaching high school together years ago, they quickly recognised each other as kindred spirits. Both of them held a passion for their work, similar interests and a love of lifelong learning, family and adventures. They sang in choir together, took joint family camping trips, attended book and coffee clubs together, as well as becoming enthusiastic early converts to the local pickleball movement. Two women who saw the world in a very similar way, best friends, ride or die.
When Marg did die, from cancer, early in 2024 Ayesha knew she’d need to honour and keep alive the memory of someone who meant so much to her and so many others. Ayesha remembered all the new pickleball players Marg had mentored and encouraged and chose to recognise Marg by way of the sport. Both had played at the Cedarbrae Community Centre where lots of other players wanted to pay tribute to Marg as well.
The Margaret Pocock Memorial Pickleball Tournament was started just a few short months after Marg’s passing. Raising funds for The Canadian Cancer Society the tournament has been held successfully two years running with the hope that it will continue for many years to come. Our CCLA secretary Belinda Halischuk jumped in to help Ayesha organise the event and the pickleball players based out of our Community Centre have opened their hearts and wallets to ensure its success.
Canada has the example of Terry Fox to show us that grassroots fundraisers just like Marg’s Tournament can and do make a difference. Calgary through our university and the J.E Child Cancer Centre (formerly Tom Baker) has become a hub for cancer care and research. In Cedarbrae we all have been touched by cancer, through our own battles, or those of our loved ones. Events like Marg’s Tournament are how we honour those we’ve lost, and fight cancer directly in our community.
As Ayesha reminds us: your community is more than the house you live in, and its only as strong as the energy you put into it. This is how it’s done, one person starting something, drawing more in, and making the world a better place. Thank-you Ayesha and thank you Marg!
The photo is of Marg and her husband Rod, one of her favourites.
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