Family donation buoys fundraising for new cancer facility

Victoria’s Campbell family has pledged a $500,000 matching gift to the B.C. Cancer Foundation’s $15-million campaign to fund cancer research and a new supportive-care facility on Richmond Road, across the street from Royal Jubilee Hospital and B.C. Cancer’s Victoria centre.

The new 12,000-square-foot facility, to be known as the Victoria Integrated Care and Research Pavilion, will be in the former Canadian Institute for the Blind building and is set to open this summer.

Referred to by the foundation as “a beacon of hope,” it will offer patient and family counselling and counselling on the hereditary aspects of cancer to help people through a cancer diagnosis and available treatments.

The campaign will also help the existing centre’s groundbreaking research and clinical trials, with $3.7 million of the total raised supporting such work as immunotherapy research and cutting-edge prostate-cancer research by

Dr. Abraham Alexander.

The foundation said more than 6,000 cases of cancer are diagnosed each year on Vancouver Island, and cases are increasing as the population grows and ages.

“Cancer has touched all of us in some way and the need for care is only rising,” said Lorne Campbell, on behalf of siblings Alex and Bonnie.

Their parents, Jo and the late Alex Campbell — the co-founder of Thrifty Foods — chaired a 2011 fundraising campaign that brought about a major expansion at Victoria’s B.C. Cancer site.

“This is a chance to improve cancer care today and to play a part in future cures,” said Lorne Campbell.

“I hope the community will join in this unique opportunity to support the thousands of Island families who are facing or will face this terrible disease.”

Campbell said his family’s involvement with the foundation goes back to 2001, when his father chaired the Daring to Believe Campaign that raised $6.5 million.

He also volunteered by chairing the foundation’s Jingle Mingle event for two years.

“The foundation is a great organization to work with,” said Lorne Campbell. “You really see all the good they do for people. They are a great group to get behind.”

Campbell said the new facility will help people meet challenges they encounter when dealing with cancer.

The family’s gift comes with a call for the public to donate to the foundation’s campaign from Monday through May 3 and effectively double their contributions up to $500,000.

“We’re so grateful for the Campbell family’s generosity towards enhancing care for local patients and families,” said William Litchfield, the foundation’s executive director for Vancouver Island.

“We hope the opportunity for donors to double their impact inspires the community to support this incredible project.”

Support for the campaign has also included fundraising efforts by a coalition of local grocery companies, including Thrifty Foods, the foundation said.

At the October launch of the campaign — the foundation’s largest-ever — Ernie and Yvonne Yakimovich donated $2.5 million and Murray and Lynda Farmer donated $500,000.

The Farmers are honorary co-chairs of the campaign.

Donations can be made at bccancerfoundation.com/Campbell-Match.