2015 Report to Our Donors Our Creed Is What We Believe Here Was a Time, Not Long Ago, Yes, We Are Still Losing People to Cancer
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2015 REPORT TO OUR DONORS Our Creed is what we believe here was a time, not long ago, Yes, we are still losing people to cancer. when cancer was a death sentence. But more and more, we are controlling TAnd the treatment was dreaded the cancer, instead of cancer controlling almost as much as the disease. We’ve us. We now know that every cancer is seen that change in our lifetime, at as individual as the patient. So we’re The Princess Margaret. developing personalized care that delivers the right treatment to the right patient at We’ve seen the entire process of cancer the right time. This is the future of cancer care forever altered. We’ve seen radical medicine, and we are on the forefront of mastectomies become lumpectomies. that progress, today. We’ve seen the precision of image guided therapies spare more healthy tissue. We’ve It may seem like we’ll be fighting this seen undreamed-of advances at the fight forever. But we won’t. Because we’re cellular level and revolutionary work in closing in. We have the momentum. We healing beyond the body. have the talent. And we have the passion. This is the front line. We are Canada’s All in our lifetime. cancer warriors. But we can’t do it alone. All at The Princess Margaret. The world needs to hear The Princess We see the things we do, give hope to Margaret message. So share it at every millions, one person at a time. We’ve opportunity with anyone who will listen. transformed a provincial cancer hospital into one of the world’s top five cancer It’s a simple message, really. But it’s a research centres. As a proud partner of message of incredible power: we are the University Health Network, we’ve conquering cancer at Canada’s cancer grown our people into the thousands. research centre, The Princess Margaret. In our lifetime. We see leading researchers, from all over the world, leave their homes to come here. Because this is where they believe the fight will be finished. In our lifetime. We’ve transformed a provincial cancer hospital into one of the world’s top 5* cancer research centres *For more information on The Princess Margaret’s global impact, go to www.thepmcf.ca/Our-Impact/Top-5-Cancer-Research-Centre “Though our WHY are we work is far from optimistic about over, we remain optimistic the future of because we have the cancer care? expertise to lay the groundwork hanks to extraordinary advances we have made across the spectrum of cancer research, for important T patient care and education, there are many progress in the reasons to be optimistic. Survival rates for Canadians diagnosed with cancer have climbed from 56% to 63% years ahead.” over the last decade1. Quality of life has also improved substantially thanks to the increasing preservation of healthy tissue through targeted treatments, as well as survivorship programs and unprecedented forays into interdisciplinary psychosocial research. A message from Dr. Bradly Wouters and Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz We are optimistic because, at the Because of this unique environment, the forefront of cancer research and frontiers of cancer research, we are The Princess Margaret continues cancer care. seeing significant change. to attract and retain outstanding Beyond our world-class staff, At Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, talent from other leading cancer several newly established centres, breakthrough discovery and institutions around the globe. As collaborations and research compassionate care go hand-in-hand. part of University Health Network breakthroughs are making our Our clinician scientists provide valuable (UHN), The Princess Margaret vision—Conquer Cancer In Our clinical insights to our researchers, welcomed newly appointed UHN Lifetime—a reality. Over the past who then witness the impact of their President & CEO, Dr. Peter Pisters, year, we launched the Joe Finley research discoveries on patient care. at the beginning of 2015. Dr. Pisters Centre for Head and Neck Cancer It is this union between research and is an internationally recognized Research. We partnered with other clinical care that makes us one of the academic surgical oncologist internationally acclaimed cancer top 5 cancer research centres in the and was formerly Vice President, centres such as Vall d’Hebron Institute world. Another key component of our Regional Care System at University of Oncology in Barcelona, Spain and research success is that we are Canada’s of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai, only comprehensive research and Center. His guidance and insight will India. By facilitating the transfer cancer treatment centre. help keep The Princess Margaret at of knowledge within The Princess 2 2015 Report to Our Donors A message from Dr. Bradly Wouters and Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz Margaret and on a global basis, we Though our work is far from over, donors, we will continue to advance help ensure the highest standards we remain optimistic because cancer research to improve care for of care are available to the widest we have the expertise to lay the patients across Canada and beyond. range of patients. groundwork for important progress Thank you for your support, For decades, Princess Margaret in the years ahead. With the support researchers have had a profound and generosity of our extraordinary impact on the way cancer is detected, diagnosed, targeted and supported. To accommodate our growing research enterprise, we expanded our campus to include the Princess Margaret Cancer Research Tower. Dr. Bradly Wouters Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz Advancing our knowledge, making Interim Research Director Medical Director new discoveries and translating this Princess Margaret Cancer Centre/UHN Princess Margaret Cancer Centre/UHN into the clinic to improve patient outcomes is embedded in The Princess Margaret’s DNA. 1www.cancer.ca The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation 3 WHY is Princess Margaret Cancer Centre a world leader? A message from the President & CEO and the Chairman of the Foundation Board our support is one of the major reasons have raised $334.6 million through philanthropy, and our researchers that Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is have raised another $322.2 million, one of the top 5 cancer research centres in for a total of $656.8 million at the Y end of year three. the world. Many of our eminent researchers would The Foundation showed its strong not be working at the cancer centre, if not for the creative side this year with the launch of a new social media tremendous philanthropic support that comes fundraising campaign called from our donors and supporters. #NoHairSelfie which culminated on February 4th, World Cancer Day. As the cover of this report suggests, • WHY do some types of cancer More than 21,000 participants we believe another big reason is return after it appears they have and their communities took up the intense curiosity and tenacity been eradicated? the challenge to ‘shave, share, and of our scientists and clinician donate’, and the campaign raised The research you are supporting is over $1.8 million in its first year. researchers who never stop asking helping our scientists and clinicians WHY, as they work with each patient, to find the answers. Special thanks for the continued with each tumour sample and with support of Emmanuelle Gattuso, In fiscal 2015, we achieved a net each new therapy. While we can’t Allan Slaight and the Slaight family. fundraising total of $102 million. prove it scientifically yet, our theory In addition to their pledged annual And thanks to superb oversight from is that our researchers have an extra gift of $5 million, Gary Slaight lent the Investment Committee of our ‘WHY gene’! great support to the #NoHairSelfie Board of Directors, we earned income campaign. We all have WHY questions about of $48 million from our investments. cancer: An extraordinary return. We also celebrated the opening This year, we completed the of the Max Tanenbaum Healing • WHY will 40 percent of Canadians Garden in November 2014 where third year of our BILLION DOLLAR be diagnosed with cancer at some beautiful hand-blown glass flowers point in their lifetime? CHALLENGE—our five-year initiative to secure $1 billion to lead the way present families and friends with • WHY are some cancers responsive in Personalized Cancer Medicine. an opportunity to honour or pay to treatment, while others are not? We are happy to report that we tribute to a loved one. 4 2015 Report to Our Donors We continue to execute with excellence in our core programs—our two lotteries sold out and raised a record $23.8 million for cancer research, while 5,212 participants in the 2014 Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer raised a record $20 million. We are very excited about transforming our successful Weekend to End Women’s Cancers into the OneWalk to Conquer Cancer so that the event will benefit research for all types of cancer. More about that inside this report. Thank you to the members of our extraordinary volunteer Board of Directors who provide excellent counsel to the Foundation in their many areas of expertise, and for their personal support of our fundraising events and efforts. In closing, WHY do cancer patients and their families and friends want to support the research taking place at The Princess Margaret? As our Creed states “We have the momentum. We have the talent. And we have the passion.” And we never stop asking WHY—because WHY is in our DNA! Thank you for helping us find the answers, Tom Ehrlich Chair, Board of Directors Paul Alofs President & CEO Tom Ehrlich and Paul Alofs in front of the newly-named Princess Margaret Cancer Research Tower The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation 5 Getting closer to Person alized Cancer Medicine n October 15, 2014, The helping to revolutionize cancer its history is also being enabled by Princess Margaret Cancer care by supporting the creation the BILLION DOLLAR CHALLENGE.