AGM: It’s been quite a year!

June 16th, 2010

On June 11, we held our Annual General Meeting — a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our successes and challenges during 2009-10.

Like most other not-for-profits, the Canadian Cancer Society was affected by the economic downturn. But, through the combined efforts of our volunteers and staff, we ended the year “in the black”.

Even more important than our financial management, however, was the impressive progress we’ve made in implementing the vision of our strategic plan. That is, afterall, the point of the Canadian Cancer Society — to eradicate cancer and enhance the life of those with this terrible disease. Here are some highlights of what we achieved in 2009-10:

  • Twelve new research projects were funded. That’s $3.3 million in funding to leading research centres in BC
  • $1.25 million was set aside to go toward the development of Phase 2 of our Cancer Prevention Centre
  • Planning and fundraising began for our Lodge in Prince George. The Lodge will accomodate cancer patients when the new cancer clinic opens in 2012
  • Twenty-eight municipalities adopted cosmetic pesticide bylaws with the Canadian Cancer Society representatives being major advocates for this cause
  • Family Camp was extended for an additional week at Camp Goodtimes
  • We led the breast cancer prevention initiative for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

The 2010-2011 Board of Directors

As ever, we appreciate our dedicated volunteers — those at the board level as well as those in the communities helping us with delivering our mission or with fundraising. I hope to bring you more detailed Volunteer Profiles in future blog posts — but for now here’s our 2010-2011 Board Roster:

  • Warren Bell, Board Leader – Medicine/Environment
  • Mae Burrows, Board Leader – Occupational & Environmental Exposures
  • Ron Climenhaga, Board Leader – Government Relations
  • Gillian Cunningham, President – Vancouver Island Region
  • Marnie Goldenberg, Board Leader – Governance
  • Lorraine Grant, President – Northern Region and Chair-elect
  • Phil Janzen, Board Leader – Organizational Development
  • Lyn McMullen, President – Interior Region
  • Dennis Meakin, Board Leader – Corporate
  • Adrienne Montani, Board Leader – Determinants of Health
  • Scott Murray, Board Leader at Large
  • Bridget Noonan, Treasurer and Chair–Finance & Audit Committee
  • Leonard Schein, Board Chair
  • Justin Stephenson, President – Greater Vancouver Region
  • Alvin Wasserman, Board Leader – Marketing and Communications
  • Joan Wharf-Higgins, Board Leader – Prevention
  • Gary Yee, President – Fraser Valley Region

Canadian Cancer Society supports BC’s change-makers

June 4th, 2010

The Canadian Cancer Society is a proud founding member of the BC Healthy Living Alliance and over the past two years we’ve been spearheading the BCHLA’s Community Capacity Strategy which has supported over 70 communities across BC to build capacity through partnerships, opportunities for financial support of healthy living projects and comprehensive training and support for community champions who work exhaustively to improve the health of their communities.

Recently we partnered with SPARC BC to host the Community Developers’ Conference at the UBC Longhouse.

Community Developers' Conference at the UBC Longhouse

Given a chance to participate, community youth can become community change-makers.

This unique conference brought together some of BC’s most passionate community members and focused on increasing the skills and knowledge of community leaders to engage in community development work. These community advocates were able to share ideas and strengthen key connections between community leaders across BC.  It was an excellent opportunity to share their community issues — and solutions.

The Canadian Cancer Society is proud to have been able to support such an exciting and impactful event. Thank you to all the community champions out there for energizing us with your work and making BC communities healthier places.

Take a moment to read the conference blog created by participants at the event – and remember to check back often as they’ll be adding more useful resources from the conference in the coming weeks.

Who takes care of the caregivers?

May 24th, 2010

Who takes care of the caregivers?

I’m posting this on Victoria Day — a statutory holiday here in BC, a day off work to relax and enjoy the spring weather.  Of course, for many Canadians – especially those taking care of a loved one with terminal cancer — there are no days off — holidays just don’t exist because cancer doesn’t take holidays.

Taking care of a dying loved one can be emotionally and financially draining. More needs to be done to help people who take on this important responsibility. And with the aging population, more and more people will find themselves in the position of caring for a loved one dying of cancer or other serious disease.

We are urging the federal government to establish a family caregiver strategy to provide more support to the people who are the invisible backbone of our health care system. Recommendations include:

 Compassionate care benefits: Increasing the period a caregiver can receive financial benefits from 6 weeks to 26 weeks to give people a more reasonable window of time for end-of-life care.

Caregiver tax benefit: A tax benefit that would be non-taxable and paid monthly to help caregivers with costs related to care giving.

Resources that can help caregivers and those diagnosed with advanced cancer with the emotional and social impact of end-of-life care is available on our website or through our support line at 1-888-939-3333.

How can caregivers get the help they need? Share your suggestions and leave a comment.

More information on the 2010 Cancer Statistics and the Special Topic: End-of-Life Care can be found here.