Hitting the slopes for pancreatic cancer research
Skiers and supporters came together at Mont Sutton to ski and raise money for the Cancer Research Society on Feb. 20 in the Rob Lutterman Ski for a Cure event. The 17th edition of the annual event raised $45,000.
Lutterman, who was an avid skier, died of pancreatic cancer in 1999. He was 63. The event and the Rob Lutterman Memorial Fund have raised more than $1.5 million to fund research on pancreatic cancer, which affects 4,800 Canadians each year.
Although survival statistics for this kind of cancer are grim, research is giving people hope. One team making a difference is led by Dr. Michel Tremblay and Dr. George Zogopoulos at McGill University’s Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre. They are finding markers in the blood that can predict pancreatic cancer early and are at work on a cancer vaccine.
Through its fundraising initiatives, the Cancer Research Society has allocated more than $57 million over the past five years to 334 cancer research projects across Canada. Visit CancerResearchSociety.ca to learn more.
Visit SkiForaCure.ca to learn more about Ski for a Cure, or to donate to the Rob Lutterman Memorial Fund.
The 14th annual Gala for Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, to take place April 4 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, will feature a tribute to Jaclyn Lea Fisher. The Montrealer died on March 21, 2015, at 25 after battling inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and primary peritoneal carcinoma.
Proceeds will go toward research, the “Make it stop. For life” campaign of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, and the establishment of the Jaclyn Fisher Education Fund.
Dr. Alain Bitton, one of Fisher’s doctors and the director of the McGill University Health Centre’s gastroenterology division, was cited in a communiqué from Crohn’s and Colitis Canada: “Jackie faced her illness as well as intense treatments head on,” he said. “She was courageous, resilient and an inspiration to her family and all of us who knew her.”
Fisher learned she had Crohn’s disease when she was only nine, and she accomplished much in her short life. At 16, she was the national teen spokesperson for an annual fundraising walk for Crohn’s and Colitis Canada; later, she started a youth committee to develop awareness and fundraising events. She represented Quebec on a Crohn’s and Colitis Canada national youth advisory council.
She organized several fundraising events at her high school, Herzliah, and graduated with five academic awards, including one for representing the school’s spirit. At Marianopolis, Fisher started an IBD Social Club. After graduating with a double DEC in arts and science, she went on to McGill, where she was on the dean’s list and won several awards before illness forced her to put her studies on hold.
The university awarded her a bachelor of arts in 2015.
Honorary gala chairs are retired senator Leo Kolber and his wife, Roni Kolber, and Claudine and Stephen Bronfman. Event co-chairs are Erin Battat and Marian Sniatowsky. Tickets cost $195. Contact Stefanie at 514-342-0666, Local 201, or visit galas4crohnsandcolitis.ca/montreal. Students at Bialik High School donated containers of creams, shampoo and conditioner, which were wrapped in gift packages, for the women of Auberge Shalom in honour of Purim. Among the observances on the Jewish holiday, which this year was on March 24, is the giving of gifts to those in need. The project was an initiative of the Bialik Student Jewish Life Committee.