On Tuesday, November 9th the P&C community gathered for the 19th annual WICC Breakfast for Cancer held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. Over 400 industry professionals gathered for a sit-down breakfast in the Canadian room. Following breakfast attendees turned their attention to the main event: a live panel discussion covering such topics as individual cancer treatment practices in Canada, cancer research and funding. The featured panelists included Bobbie Goldie (cancer survivor and Chubb employee), Dr. Kelly Fathers (Senior Manager of Research Communications with the Canadian Cancer Society) and Dr. Uri Tabori (Scientist, Clinician and leader in childhood cancer research). Breakfast Event Chair, Barb Reddick, served as panel moderator.
Dr. Tabori and Dr. Fathers underlined the importance of organizations like WICC who support crucial cancer research funding and offered examples of the important breakthroughs that have been made thanks to such funding. Research grants currently funded by WICC include:
- WICC Ontario Breast Cancer Innovation Grant of the Canadian Cancer Society (Dr Sabourin)
- WICC Ontario Prostate Cancer Innovation Grant of the Canadian Cancer Society (Dr He)
Following the panel, WICC ON Co-chairs, Ellen Moore and Marilyn Horrick announced the award winners for the inaugural WICC 20th Anniversary National Platinum Volunteer Awards. Cat Pickell (Crawford & Company) was presented with the Ontario Chapter award for her long-serving dedication to the WICC Ontario Gala event. Thanks and congratulations were extended to the following award winners in other chapters:
WICC AB – Jim Sinclair (Guardian Insurance)
WICC BC – Debbie Demar (Marsh) & Mary da Costa (The Guarantee)
WICC QC – Carole Morin (Travellers)
Thank you to all WICC National Sponsors and Event Sponsors who make the WICC Breakfast for Cancer possible. And to all of the dedicated committee members and volunteers who work tirelessly throughout the year to bring this fun and important fundraising event to the P&C community.
WICC is grateful to the P&C community for their support in making WICC the Canadian Cancer Society’s largest living donor – having raised over $12.6 million since its inception in 1996.
Check back here for updates to funds raised from this year’s Breakfast as well as additional photos from the event as they become available.