Skip to main content

The Canadian Cancer Society's Daffodil Campaign

 On Thursday April 21, I had the opportunity to speak in response to a Ministerial Statement on the Canadian Cancer Society's Daffodil campaign, a month-long campaign to raise funds to help find better treatments and cures for cancer and to help those suffering from cancer.  My comments are below.

Daffodil Campaign


Mr. Gerrard: Madam Speaker, cancer can be a tragic, challenging and difficult disease which too often still ends in death from the cancer. The good news is that there is more hope than ever with existing and new treatments that deliver longer and longer sur­vival and in­creasingly higher and higher rates of cure.

      In Canada, much thanks is due to the Canadian Cancer Society and its efforts, including the Daffodil Campaign every year.

      When I began my internship and residency to be a pediatrician in 1971 at the Uni­ver­sity of Minnesota, there was no evidence that a child with acute lympho­blastic leukemia could be cured. It was considered a  death sentence. By the time I left my time as a physician, looking after children with blood problems and cancer, to enter politics in 1993, 75 to 80 per cent of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were being cured.

      Today, the rates of im­prove­ment and cure from treatment of all cancers have improved–some dra­mat­i­cally, some less so.

      One of the most difficult cancers to treat is and has been lung cancer. The gov­ern­ment of Manitoba should be doing much more to prevent lung cancer by reducing radon levels in homes, as well as in reducing smoking. The lifetime risk for lung cancer for those who are both smokers and who are exposed to radon is one person in three: very high, and much higher than somebody who is just a smoker only. This is why we need to be very active in reducing both.

      My ex­per­ience in Minneapolis working with in­dividuals who were at the leading edge of the research and treatment of cancer in children showed me how im­por­tant it is to have research and the clinical trials to test new options. It made a huge difference in the  treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is making a big difference in more difficult to treat cancers like lung cancer.

      The Daffodil Campaign raises awareness and funds to prevent cancer and to improve the lives and the outcomes for those who develop cancer. Thank you to the Canadian Cancer Society for all you do to help in this endeavour and to help Manitobans and Canadians in this respect.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dougald Lamont speaks at Meth Forum last night to present positive ideas to address the epidemic, while exposing the lack of action by the Pallister Conservatives

Last night at the Notre Dame Recreation Centre in St. Boniface, at an Election Forum on the Meth Crisis in Manitoba, Dougald Lamont spoke eloquently about the severity of the meth epidemic and described the Liberal plan to address it.  The Liberal Plan will make sure that there is a single province-wide phone number for people, or friends of people, who need help dealing with meth to call (as there is in Alberta) and that there will be rapid access to a seamless series of steps - stabilization, detoxification, treatment, extended supportive housing etc so that people with meth addiction can be helped well and effectively and so that they can rebuild their lives.  The Liberal meth plan will be helped by our approach to mental health (putting psychological therapies under medicare), and to poverty (providing better support).  It will also be helped by our vigorous efforts to help young people understand the problems with meth in our education system and to provide alternative positive

Manitoba Liberal accomplishments

  Examples of Manitoba Liberal accomplishments in the last three years Ensured that 2,000 Manitoba fishers were able to earn a living in 2020   (To see the full story click on this link ). Introduced a bill that includes retired teachers on the Pension Investment Board which governs their pension investments. Introduced amendments to ensure school aged children are included in childcare and early childhood education plans moving forward. Called for improvements in the management of the COVID pandemic: ·          We called for attention to personal care homes even before there was a single case in a personal care home. ·            We called for a rapid response team to address outbreaks in personal care homes months before the PCs acted.  ·          We called for a science-based approach to preparing schools to   improve ventilation and humidity long before the PCs acted. Helped hundreds of individuals with issues during the pandemic including those on social assistance

The Indigenous Science Conference in Winnipeg June 14-16

  June 14 to 16, I spent three days at the Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference.  It was very worthwhile.   Speaker after speaker talked of the benefits of using both western or mainstream science and Indigenous science.  There is much we can learn from both approaches.   With me above is Myrle Ballard, one of the principal organizers of the conference.  Myrle Ballard, from Lake St. Martin in Manitoba, worked closely with Roger Dube a professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, and many others to make this conference, the first of its kind, a success.  As Roger Dube, Mohawk and Abenaki, a physicist, commented "My feeling is that the fusion of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science methodology should rapidly lead the researchers to much more holistic solutions to problems."   Dr. Myrle Ballard was the first person from her community to get a PhD.  She is currently a professor at the University of Manitoba and the Director of Indigenous Science