Canadian Cancer Society celebrates 75 years
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By Carrie DebroneKitchener Citizen
April 11, 2013
When you wear a Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) daffodil pin this year it will not only remind you of the ongoing need to raise funds for cancer research, but it will also mark the Canadian Cancer Society’s 75th anniversary.
“Our 75th is sort of a mixed blessing. It’s hard to say on the one had that we’re ‘celebrating’ 75 years of fighting cancer. What we really want to do is find a way to wipe ourselves out along with cancer. It would be nice to be able to say we don’t need an organization to fight cancer, but we do,” said Martin Kabat, CEO of the Ontario Division of the Canadian Cancer Society.
Kabat said it is “almost impossible not to be aware of the CCS and it’s work.
“Were such a grassroots organization and so profoundly involved in every community,” he said, noting that the achievements of the society over the last 75 years will be highlighted at many of its events this year including the 219
scheduled Relays for Life in Ontario.
Diane Hawrylenko, whose mother died of multiple myeloma in
1996, is Past President and Chair of Public Issues Committee for the local Canadian Cancer Society.
“A lot of research dollars come from this area but we also have a very strong base of volunteers here,” adding there are many rewarding volunteering opportunities with CCS including fundraising work, supporting advocacy campaigns, driving people to treatments, and peer support.
The CCS has over 1,000 volunteers in Waterloo region.
“Volunteers are at the heart of the CCS’s efforts,” Hawrylenko said, adding that she personally has found a lot of satisfaction from knowing that her volunteer efforts have helped someone.
“You can make a difference. It makes you appreciate life. What you give to your community is way more important than what your community gives you,” she said.
“On Daffodil Day April 27 we’re asking people to wear a daffodil pin in support of people with cancer – to show them that no one with cancer has to face it alone,” she said.
“The daffodil has been a symbol of strength, courage and hope for 75 years.”
Over $1billion has gone into Canadian cancer research and the impacts of the work shows.
For example. Kabat said research, funded by the CCS, at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto, showed that a brain cancer previously thought to be one type of cancer was actually four different cancers. Now doctors can treat each one separately with much better results.
The CCS also funded research at the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact at the University of Waterloo, that studied how social media could be used to change the smoking habits of young people.
Research also helped develop a new drug that reduces by 65 percent the likelihood of women prone to breast cancer from developing the disease.
“The Canadian Cancer Society doesn’t fund every cancer research project. We only fund the best of the best. We punch above our weight and we carefully rate each project before deciding what to support,” Kabat said.
“When we started 75 years ago only about 25 per cent of people with cancer survived. Today over 62 per cent of people with cancer survive.” Kabat said.
“Over 88 per cent of people with breast cancer now survive. We’re very proud of that. If we can get people to fund other cancers to the same level as they do breast cancer then we will begin to see success like we’ve had with breast cancer.”
There are now 300 different cancer charities in Canada.
Kabat said that because there is currently so much pressure on health care spending, some cancer research is getting cut.
“It’s a tipping point. Now is the time to fund more research,” he said, adding that more attention should be paid to cancer prevention.
Over the last ten years in the Region of Waterloo the CCS has provided personal peer support to over 9,000 cancer patients and driven 5,000 patients to over 70,000 appointments. The organization has also helped 4,300 people quit smoking.
“Wear a daffodil pin in April. That’s a way that we can show our support for the continued fight against cancer,” Kabat said.
For more information visit www.cancer.ca
Canadian Cancer Society volunteers Mildred Harrington (left) and Sandy Gamble, who have sold Daffodil Days daffodils for about 30 years, ran a busy booth outside Zehrs at Stanley Park Mall on April 6. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Canadian Cancer Society.