Your Fundraising Dollars at Work

In 2011, more than 700 caring and compassionate Manitobans joined the 4th Annual Challenge for Life 20k Walk. The exceptional efforts of everyone involved resulted in more than $1 million being raised, which was immediately put to work at CancerCare Manitoba.

Some of the programs receiving funding include:

• Patient and Family Support Services, providing programs free of charge to anyone affected by a cancer diagnosis. Programs include the Patient and Family Resource Centre, a sanctuary where more than 5,000 patients every year access a lending library of information about cancer, treatment and support, consultation with a nurse, helpful volunteers, a computer, phone and refreshments; Information and Support sessions for patients and their families on common types of cancer; and Quality of Life programs including Art Therapy, Yoga, and Music to My Ears.
  
  
• Volunteer Services and Patient Assistance Services, giving first-time patients information on CancerCare Manitoba's many programs and services.
  
  
• Investing in UPCON (Uniting Primary Care and Oncology) training programs for family doctors in 39 (and growing) urban and rural clinics around Manitoba to enhance their knowledge and skills around cancer care.
  
  
• Investing in Manitoba Aboriginal Community Partnership
  
  
• Investing in Translational Research, translating knowledge into action to directly improve care of all cancer patients in Manitoba.
  
  
• Investing in CancerCare Manitoba's Tumour Bank, conducting research into leukemia, prostate, lung, breast, and head and neck cancers.
  
  
• Investing in Clinical Trials, giving patients access to leading-edge treatments and allowing researchers to develop and test potentially life-saving therapies. Approximately 1,000 CancerCare Manitoba patients are currently enrolled in a clinical trial.
  
  
• Investing in Epidemiology (the study of cancer patterns in the population), focusing on the key areas of cancer control: prevention, access and outcomes. "If we can measure it, we can change it."
  

CancerCare Manitoba is the government-mandated cancer agency for the entire province, charged with the responsibility for cancer prevention, detection, treatment, research and education.

Our goal is to prevent every cancer we can. Those we cannot prevent, we strive to detect early. Those we do not detect early, we treat with the best available options. In CancerCare's Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology, research dollars invested through the Foundation are leveraged several times by our internationally recognized clinician/scientists. Today's research will become the breakthroughs of tomorrow!

On behalf of everyone at CancerCare Manitoba - especially the patients we serve - thank you to our phenomenal Challengers, donors and sponsors who helped make the incredible possible!

"This was the place my family and I could go to find the information and support
we needed during the hardest time of our lives."