A crisp autumn breeze blew into the region the week I met Denise Czop.

It was October 2011 and having recently been assigned to write the Living with Cancer feature series, I wanted to sit down with her to get a feel for who she was and how we would tell her story.

But as I made my way to her south Oshawa neighbourhood one afternoon, I felt uneasy.

Outside, the leaves had just started to turn with the season and the streets were barren with only a few drifters wringing the last drops out of the summer.