A walk to remember

By Anthony Bonaparte, August 22nd, 2012

This Saturday and Sunday, hundreds of people from all walks of life and from both side of the language divide will march and stroll through Montreal's various neighbourhoods with one common purpose.
Taking place over two days, August 25-26, the Pharmaprix Weekend to End Women's Cancers, benefiting the Segal Cancer Centre at the Jewish General Hospital, will see some participants cover a full 60 km over two days, and others limit themselves to a one-day, 30 km distance. Along the route they will remember the lives lost to breast or gynecologic cancer and celebrate the ones now being saved.
More than $45 million has been raised since the Montreal event began in 2005. Last year, Marianopolis College student Leehi Yona was one of the more than 1,800 participants who raised over $4.3 million. This year, the 19 year old, who is entering her first year at university, will be taking part for the second time.
Yona was initially motivated to get involved when she found out a few years ago that an aunt in Israel had cancer. After registering for last year's walk and talking about it with some friends, she encountered people who also had personal connections to the disease.
“One of my classmates, who is a close friend now, told me her mom has been treated at the Segal Cancer Centre for over a decade now,” says the Dollard des Ormeaux resident. “What shocked me most was realizing that there are so many of us who actually know somebody — be it a friend, a family member or somebody we work with — that is touched by cancer.”
The group of a half dozen friends formed a team they named CaUSE (CEGEP and University Students for the End) and to further illustrate the point, just a few month after their first walk, one of Yona's former high school teachers, and one of her first donors, was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
“I'm seeing it first-hand from her,” says Yona. “She's somebody who supported the cause before she was treated and is even more supportive of it now that she realizes how crucial these services are and how much of a difference they make. That's also something that motivates me to raise money.”
In just under two years, Team CaUSE, now 17 members strong, has raised over $45,000 for the Segal. The added infusion of funds has allowed the Cancer Centre to not only provide better care to its patients, but to recruit top-flight research personnel from around the world, upgrade equipment, and develop a number of major programs that can also be exported to other hospitals.
“I think that the level or research that we're doing now is on an international level,” says Dr. Gerald Batist, director of the Segal Cancer Centre. “We can and we are making a difference that is useful to patients elsewhere, and that's our intent.”
One in seven Canadian women will be diagnosed with a women's cancer during her lifetime and will benefit from advances in research and care that have multiplied in the last five to 10 years.
“It's absolutely fantastic,” says Dr. Batist. “The major thing that's going on now is that we're understanding that the histological diagnosis, breast cancer, is not all that meaningful. What is really meaningful is the molecular diagnosis — looking at the genes and the product of the genes in what we call a molecular signature.”
As a result, researchers have been able to recategorize and subcategorize breast cancer into a number of separate diseases, bringing on the era of personalized medicine. “We can actually study a tumour, classify it, understand where it fits by virtue of its molecular signature, and turn to the right therapy,” he explains.
Dr. Batist points out that lung cancer in women, which is on the rise, may in fact be a very different disease that could be categorized a women's cancer.
“It's kind of a breakthrough area in the treatment of lung cancer,” he says. “We're starting to find small subcategories of lung cancer particularly common among women where there are particular mutations that make the tumours highly susceptible to much less toxic treatment.”
Cancer has already been changed from an acute, lethal disease into a chronic illness where many more people are living with it instead of dying from it and the doctor says there are many more advances coming at a much more rapid pace. For this, continued support from events like the weekend walk is crucial. Money is one thing, but Dr. Batist, who has taken part in every walk since its inception, says there's an even larger component.
“These walks are very important because people are doing some physical activity and developing a sense of community,” he explains. “It's a way for people to exercise some demons, to feel stronger, and to share. It's really quite something.”
For more information, visit www.endcancer.ca
anthony@thesuburban.com