Dear Carley’s Angels Champions,
We raise one final glass to you for making Cheers for Champions our most successful event in over 4 years, raising $46,595 for integrative cancer care. Not only was it our first in person event since 2019, Cheers was like nothing we’ve ever done before, just ask a Champion who attended.
We connected for the first time in years! We learned first hand from the Director of the Cancer Experience Program at The Princes Margaret Cancer Centre, and a world leader in cancer care who is bringing this “Carley’s Angels funded” model of care home to Africa! We ate an immersive meal curated by students, the chef, and the dietician from the Cancer Experience Program! And finally, we pledged our support to creating access to integrative cancer care for all patients, popping our goal like those balloons, by raising $46,595 in just one night!
We started the evening by welcoming our 66 lucky ticket holders into the doors of the Chefs house, greeted with a custom cocktail made by Chef Geremy Capone of the Cancer Experience Program, a pear gin mix of autumn perfection.
We witnessed Champions who haven’t connected in person since 2019, and it was an awe inspiring thing. People who are connected through a mutual passion and dedication to Carley’s Angels are something special. We hugged, caught up, chatted, signed a stunning guest book that will forever hang at HQ, and gave our community a chance to meet our newest team members including our first full time staff member, Victoria Lee and our Exec team member Andrew McKeough all the way from the States!
Oh and Carley’s Dad, Mark Allison, was handed a dime that was found by Cheers for Champions attendee, Guiseppe Papia. Do you have goosebumps? Because we did.
As cocktail hour came to a close our Executive Director, Riley Allison, took to the mic to introduce the evening and remind us of our why.
“In honour of Carley’s experience, and when she gained her wings, we started by funding mandatory mental health support for children facing cancer at SickKids, a program so successful it is now government funded, and most recently we have funded the world’s first Cancer Experience Program at The Princess Margaret Cancer Center, simply put as putting the human touch in cancer care.”
Now with a solemn but inspiring reminder of why we all joined forces almost 9 years ago, the first course was being served. Geremy Capone, Cancer Experience Program Chef, and Daniela Fierini, Cancer Experience Program Dietitian, came to the podium to deliver the first of 3 immersive dining experiences! Explaining the significance of each course both for a cancer patient and cancer prevention, why they chose each course, and what the detailed dietary highlights were of each selection.
Both made sure to thank the Chefs and students in the George Brown Culinary program for bringing this meal, from the immersive dining concept, to life!
As Champions were starting to enjoy the first course, Salt Cod & Parsnip Cakes on a Fennel Salad, we had Dr. Rodin, the director of the Cancer Experience Program funded by Carley’s Angels, take to the mic.
Dr. Rodin gave an incredibly vivid description of how many alternative care treatments the Cancer Experience Program provides on a daily basis to put the human touch in cancer care, quoting that “$100,000 investment in this kind of care impacts the same as $1,000,000 in bio medicine”.
But he didn’t stop there, he wanted to show the Carley’s Angels community the impact of our gift funding one specific project that aims to provide physicians with communication training missed in medical school, filling a crucial gap in care by providing compassionate communication. He showed the room a 5 min vignette from Project Empathy that is being distributed around the Princess Margaret Cancer Center, and now the world to address the care gap of compassion.
The room was quiet, inspired, and ready for more.