| MOVE
Kivi Park Fitness Series: 5th Annual Cancer Centre
Walk/Run for Hope
Sunday, October 27th at Kivi Park
A little rain and
some cold weather didn't stop us from keeping
the 5th annual Cancer centre Walk/Run for Hope!
presented by Adventure365 on track yesterday.
Despite the reminder
that winter is indeed coming, 125 participants
(many in costumes) joined us at Kivi Park and
$18,000 was raised!
Cancer
Centre Walk/Run for Hope raises $18,000
Lily Fielding and top fundraising teams honoured
during the fifth annual celebration at Kivi Park
by
Keira Ferguson
Cameron
Perdue, great grandson of Lily Fielding accepts
award from NCF
Stuffed into rainboots,
with umbrellas in hand, more than 125 participants
braved the rain at Kivi Park Saturday to participate
in the fifth annual Cancer Centre Walk/Run for
Hope, raising $18,000 for the Northeast Cancer
Centre (NCC).
Representatives of
the Northern Cancer Foundation (NCF) began the
event by presenting Kivi Park with a plaque to
honour the personal support of the late Lily Fielding,
in addition to recognizing the efforts of their
top fundraising team and individual participant.
Through the Cliff
and Lily Fielding Foundation, the philanthropist
donated 450 acres of land to Kivi Park in her
lifetime, in addition to that of the decommissioned
Long Lake Public School. Coupled with the $2 million
she contributed towards developing the property,
Fielding is considered an integral partner in
the creation of the community space.
Find more information
on the Fielding family's relationship with Kivi
Park
here and more information
on the matriarch here.
Team Gramma
Barbara
The top fundraising
team this year was Team Gramma Barbara, who through
a family effort raised more than $3,000 in memory
of the late Barbara Lada.
Barbara passed away
from osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in 2003 after
having been diagnosed with the disease two years
earlier, said her husband Jerry Lada, but her
influence is felt to this day.
She had been one
of the first physicians to work at the newly opened
NCC, and was eventually head of radiation oncology
at the centre, he said, dedicating her career
to fighting the disease that eventually took her
life.
This caring nature
stayed with her throughout her cancer journey,
said her daughter Ewa Ceccon, along with a hopefulness
that changed NCF forevermore.
1000 cranes
During her treatment,
Barbara was visited by a friend and fellow oncologist,
who shared with her an ancient Japanese legend
which promises that anyone who folds a thousand
cranes will have their wish granted by God.
From that point on,
origami became a favoured past-time for Barbara
and those who visited her, eventually inspiring
the logo and decoration of NCF.
This was the first
Cancer Centre Walk/Run for Hope that Jerry and
his family have participated in since Barbara's
passing, having been inspired to do so by his
new wife, Sheila Lada.
Oddly enough, in
addition to her connection with the family she
now calls her own, Sheila's father had been a
patient of Barbara's, but passed away shortly
before her diagnosis in 2001.
"We just want
to make sure that the grandchildren remember and
know what a caring, loving person she was and
what she did for the community," said Sheila.
Sunday's event marks
the end of the 2019 MOVE Fitness Series, which
Tannys Laughren, executive director of NCF, said
welcomed more participants and monetary donations
than ever before. She attributes this to the lighthearted,
accessible nature of the series, and the community
work it celebrates.
The walk/run for
hope, in particular, said Laughren, was made even
more family friendly this year with a Halloween
theme to reflect the event's move from May to
October.
"We're just
trying to get people out and get active,"
said Laughren. "For us, it's really important
that people realize that the more active you are,
the healthier you are...the better cancer outcomes."
More than 2,000 people
have participated in the Cancer Centre Walk/Run
for Hope over the past five years, said Anthony
Keating, president and CDO of Foundations, HSN
Volunteer Association and Volunteer Services through
NCF. Subsequently raising $200,000 towards critical
equipment, research, and patient care at NCC.
With a world-class
facility and world-leading oncologists, Keating
said the cancer centre is an amazing resource
to the 600,000 residents of Northeastern Ontario
within its catchment area but hopes its services
are never needed.
"Seeing our
community rally around the work that we do to
help improve the health care of our community...it
really is quite something," said Keating.
"We want to
make sure that people have access to it, but we
don't really want to see them in the cancer centre."
Find more information
on the Northern Cancer Foundation and its support
of the Northeast Cancer Centre here.
Results
Here
|
219.jpg)
