Canadian Cancer Society

History

The idea to form the Canadian Cancer Society originally came from the Saskatchewan Medical Association in 1929, when they formed Canada’s first cancer committee.

In 1937, the National Study Committee recommended the formation of new organization, which was later called Canadian Cancer Society for the control of cancer.

The Society was officially formed a decade later, in 1938, to educate Canadians about the early warning signs of cancer. At that time, many people did not seek medical help until their cancer had advanced past a treatable stage.

In 1947, the Society began funding cancer research through the creation of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, an agreement between the Canadian Cancer Society and the Federal Department of Health and Welfare. The Society continues to fund cancer research today the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute.

Mission

The Canadian Cancer Society is a national, community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is the eradication of cancer and the enhancement of the quality of life of people living with cancer. The Canadian Cancer Society is Canada’s largest national cancer charity and the country’s largest national charitable funder of cancer research.

Relying on donor and volunteer support, the Canadian Cancer Society fulfills its mission by:

Organization

The Canadian Cancer Society consists of:

Each provincial and territorial division of the Canadian Cancer Society has a Board of Directors, chaired by a volunteer divisional president.

Public accountability for the organization rests at the national level. The national Board of Directors has 18 volunteer representatives from across Canada. The President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society is Lynne Hudson.

Daffodils

The logo for the Canadian Cancer Society is the daffodil. The flower had served as a symbol of cancer awareness since the 1950s, when volunteers for the Society organized a fundraising tea in Toronto; the volunteers used daffodils to decorate the tables, as they thought it would create hope that cancer could be beaten.

The use of daffodils for fundraising began in 1956, when volunteers handed out daffodils at Toronto-area restaurants, as means to spread the message about cancer awareness; at first, the daffodils were given to the patrons, just to get the word out about cancer, but when some wanted to pay for the flowers or make a donation, it was realized that the daffodils could be used as a fundraising tool for the Society.

This led to the first daffodil days in the spring of 1957, when Society volunteers in Toronto raised over $1,200 on sales of daffodils. As the first flower of spring, the daffodil became a symbol of hope in the fight against cancer and daffodil days fundraising events spread throughout the rest of Canada and amongst cancer organizations around the world, including the American Cancer Society, the Irish Cancer Society and The Cancer Council Australia.

Today, the Society is the world's largest purchaser of daffodils. In 2000, the Canadian Cancer Society adopted the daffodil as part of its logo, replacing the sword and snakes logo, which symbolized the rod of Asclepius, the dominant symbol for professional healthcare associations in North America. Many cancer organizations have also incorporated the daffodil in their logos including The Cancer Council Australia, Irish Cancer Society and Marie Curie Cancer Care, although the American Cancer Society continues to use a rod of Asclepius-styled logo.

Relay For Life

Relay For Life is the Canadian Cancer Society’s signature fundraising event. Relay For Life is a non-competitive, outdoor, overnight relay held in hundreds of communities across Canada every year. The 12-hour relay brings teams of 10 people together to take turns walking, running or wheeling around a track from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Main events include a Survivors' Victory Lap, a luminary ceremony to remember loved ones lost to cancer as well as anything from karaoke to bingo to help keep people energized throughout the night. In 2009, the event raised more than $52 million for the Society at 474 events across Canada.

Cops for Cancer

The first Cops for Cancer program started in 1994 when Sergeant Gary Goulet, an Edmonton police officer with a shaved head, posed for a picture with a young cancer patient. The officer wanted to support the boy, who was being ridiculed at school because of his hair loss. Since then law enforcement and emergency services officers from across Canada have held Cops for Cancer fundraising events for the Canadian Cancer Society.

During these events, each year hundreds of police, officials and members of the public shave their heads to raise money to support children with cancer and their families. Other fundraising activities from this group include golf tournaments and elite sporting events. Since it began, the program has raised over $32.8 million.

Thing-a-ma-boob

Introduced in 2005 the Thing-a-ma-boob, is an educational keyring made of four different sized beads each indicating the various sized lumps that can be detected through regular breast self-exams, physical exams by a healthcare professional, 1st mammogram, to regular mammograms.

Money raised from the sale of the Thing-a-ma-boob will go towards funding breast cancer research, providing support services for victims and their families, as well as prevention and advocacy initiatives.

Activities

The Canadian Cancer Society offers a variety of information and support services to Canadians including:

Big Tobacco Lies is a campaign run by the Tobacco Industry Action Committee to provide outreach and information on tobacco use. The group lobbied for Bill 45, the Making Healthier Choices act, which was passed in May 2015.

Research

The Canadian Cancer Society is the largest national charitable funder of cancer research. Cancer research is funded through the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute. Using a peer review process, research grants and training opportunities are funded for all types of cancer and include basic laboratory research, clinical trials as well as behavioral, psychosocial and population-based cancer research.

The survival rate for Canadians with cancer to survive at least 5 years jumped from 25% in the 1940s to over 60% as of 2016. In 2015-2016, the Canadian Cancer Society funded over 350 projects and $44 million dollars in research in three different aspects; prevention, basic/biomedical/translational, and quality of life.

The Canadian Cancer Society created the Research Information Outreach Teams (RIOT) in Kingston, London, Toronto, and Ottawa with university students and young scientists focused on community outreach.

Notable research that the Canadian Cancer Society has funded includes:

The Canadian Cancer Society also advocates on behalf of Canadians by encouraging governments to pass public policies that will help prevent cancer and help people living with cancer. Issues the Society advocates for include tobacco control, ornamental use of pesticides, health systems reform, occupational carcinogen exposure, cancer screening and gene patenting.

The Canadian Cancer Society gives out four research awards in the advancement in the field of cancer research. The Robert L. Noble Prize is given for achievements in basic biomedical cancer research. The O. Harold Warwick Prize is given to researchers who made accomplishments in cancer control research.