Thursday, 14. April 2011
From left to right: Alberta Cancer Campaign Co-Chair Frank Sojonky, University Hospital Foundation Board Trustee Irv Kipnes, the Honourable Gene Zwozdesky, Minister of Health and Wellness, Government of Alberta, Prostate Cancer Canada president Steve Jones, Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation Director John Day and Former Alberta Cancer Foundation Chair & Trustee Bob Bentley receive a cheque for $1 million from Prostate Cancer Canada for Edmonton's Prostate Health Clinic.
An early morning breakfast in Edmonton was a wake up call and a celebration.
The Wake Up Call breakfast, hosted by Prostate Cancer Canada, is a regular event held at locations across Canada to increase awareness of prostate cancer and give a “wake up call” to men to get educated about this prevalent disease. With one in six men destined to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, it is a disease that means not “if” but “when” it will affect someone they know, or even themselves.
This year’s Wake Up Call breakfast at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton included the announcement of an incredible $1-million donation to Edmonton’s own Campaign for Prostate Health.
The Campaign for Prostate Health is a joint effort between the Alberta Cancer Foundation, the University Hospital Foundation and the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation. The campaign’s goal is to raise $30-million to help improve prostate care for patients in the Edmonton and northern Alberta region through improved technology, research and innovation. The campaign funds will also help to develop a consolidated urology centre including a Prostate Health Clinic at the Edmonton Clinic South, currently under construction southwest of the University of Alberta Hospital.
The 45,000-square-foot urology centre in the Edmonton Clinic will house 15 urologists and offer a one-stop location for men where they can see a healthcare team within weeks of diagnosis instead of having to wait several months after their family doctor refers them for testing. Currently, the wait can be up to eight months or more to go from testing to treatment, a period of time that can seem like an eternity to a cancer patient. With the new Rapid Access Prostate Health Clinic, patients will promptly meet a team of specialists to figure out chemotherapy, radiation or surgical options and take the first steps on the road to treatment and recovery.
Frank Sojonky, a member of the Campaign for Prostate Health leadership team, has been a tireless crusader for prostate cancer. 22 years after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, which has since spread to his bones, Sojonky is finally seeing awareness of his disease grow, through popular fundraising initiatives such as Movember and the Underwear Affair Run.
Speaking about the Rapid Access Prostate Health Clinic, Frank was clearly emotional at getting closer to the goal. "It's my dream. It's what we all worked for," said Frank, who jumped into the fundraising campaign several years ago and with a group of friends raised $2.5 million for a $5-million endowment chair for prostate research that will take Sojonky's name.
Finding a cure for prostate cancer is important, but so is raising awareness and educating men about the disease as well as looking after men who have been diagnosed. "When I first had prostate cancer, nobody knew but my wife and my son,” explains Frank. “I never told anyone for 10 to 12 years." Now, Frank bravely speaks to rooms filled with hundreds of people and mentors more than a dozen men with prostate cancer, even though his own health has been declining.
Steve Jones, president and CEO of Prostate Cancer Canada, was on hand at the Wake Up Call breakfast to officially present the $1 million donation. Like Frank, he is enthusiastic about the Rapid Access Prostate Health Clinic. "Once someone has been diagnosed, it's a very scary road, and the more support they have, the better,” said Jones. “The kinds of programs the clinic is putting in help men not only physically, but help them mentally deal with what they've got to go through.”
“Events like the Wake Up Call breakfast are important,” says John Day, a director at the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation and a leading volunteer for the Campaign for Prostate Health. “Prostate Cancer Canada is doing an amazing job raising awareness and funds across the country and it’s important for men in Edmonton as to see that the money they have helped to raise is able to directly benefit their community, as well as to be made aware of the importance of prostate health.”
Frank and Irv Kipnes, co-chairman of the Campaign for Prostate Health, have seen awareness of prostate cancer take off in the last five years. It can often be an uphill battle to make men aware of prostate cancer and speak freely about a disease that can often include unpleasant side effects and additional health worries.
"Men were very reluctant to speak about prostate cancer for a very long time," said Kipnes, whose own battle with the disease made him a determined spokesman for the Campaign for Prostate Health. One of Canada’s most distinguished fundraisers, Kipnes has helped spearhead a very successful fundraising campaign that has raised more than $24 million out of the $30-million goal for the clinic, research and surgical initiatives.
The Edmonton Clinic South is expected to be complete in 2012, with the Rapid Access Prostate Health Clinic opening in 2013.
For more information about the Campaign for Prostate Health, please contact Jeff Buhr, Development Officer, at 780-735-5804.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|