The words of comfort have a real power when those who dictate are beings who inspire us.

These days, through the rehearsal for my upcoming shows and my daily tasks, I still have the happiness to remain in contact and to meet with many sick children and their families. People, the time that I give them is received as a wave to be positive, a smile, comforting, and a few times as a thinning through a cloud passage.

Lately I've had an operation and through the many words of comfort received, there were those of my cousin Vincent.

5 years my junior, he was a being that I have always liked. At first I was like its big brother, but quickly there was no age difference, there was that of aiding and abetting. It was my first fan for my antics and his laughter that echoed was good to hear. Born to a dad from quebec (the brother of my father) and a French mother, the divorce of the latter led him to go and live in france. But we have always kept in touch.

Recently when I was in the hospital, and that I divulguais on the networks of socio my desire to get back on their feet quickly, Vincent wrote to me; " Hey cousin, do not go too fast, take the time of your recovery, it is important! Our body goes less quickly than our will, and I know you, this is great "tabarouette" as they say in Quebec. !!! Big beaks cousin!! "

By reading his words...I felt something like never before. I had the impression that "my brother" wrote to me...Even now as I write these lines I am overwhelmed by the sensation. As if a bottle thrown into the sea of my childhood resurfaced. In this bitterly cold day, when the sun shone the ice on the lake, I want to thank life for this gift that I didn't expect but that I have long desired in secret in my childhood dreams.

The words that my cousin has used do not have the same value as if they had been spoken by someone who does not have the same importance in my eyes.

I am increasingly aware of the responsibility of all those who want comfort, who want to try to inspire others... According to me, any person who comforts and inspires is benefiting from this wealth, but this advantage is not without a responsibility.

The parents of sick children have to cope with the storms and this type of tearing is clearly understandable. The misunderstandings and the unbearable feeling of powerlessness experienced by these last must find a way.

I am greatly and deeply inspired by the struggles that lead these children and their families facing the disease. Then as I am from the artistic community and I get some visibility, I become a source of inspiration for many young people struggling with ill-health.

The inspiring person who enters into the life of a sick child, and who knows he is admired and challenging for the child needs to recognize its role and responsibility. In 28 years of relationship with the sick children and their families, I have always (at least, I hope) attempt to comply with this "law not written" in the aid relationship.

I remember Hélène, a young girl suffering from Leukemia, with which I had bound of friendship in 2001, and that I was going to visit in the isolation room at the CHU Ste-Justine while she was exhausting chemotherapy treatments. She told me that she was "a fan" of Flash (which I co-ran with Patricia Paquin every night at TQS), and my presence seemed to comfort her. One day she had handed me a drawing for my birthday, saying;" oh, this will be for you a good-luck charm ".

I comforted them, did laugh, and for me it was an inspiration.

Hélène is dead, but all my life I will remember what his mom had said to me at the cemetery" you know Alain, there are things that Helena said that to you ".

In the eyes of this child I was not that Alain Dumas, I was a confidant, of which she had greatly needed, I was an ear in his solitude, a small, but real light in his darkness. So if there is one thing of which one must be "humanely acknowledging" it is this chance that gives us life, to be able to play the role of "inspiring person" and to do so in the utmost respect.

Alain Dumas