UNews - Jack Ady Cancer Centre

U of L students unite to fight cancer

caroline.zentner — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 17:04:06 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Students’ Union (ULSU) and the U of L Bookstore have teamed up to fight cancer through a movement called F*CK CANCER inwykiwyk.

The F*CK CANCER inwykiwyk (an acronym for It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know) movement was designed to give young adults whose lives have been impacted by cancer a way to raise money and attend a charity event that allows them to bond and gain strength from others.

“The U of L Bookstore is proud to partner with the Students’ Union on this important initiative,” says Annette Bright, Bookstore manager. “Cancer affects everyone and we are happy to help support our students as they raise money to help fight this disease.”

Those who want to attend the F*CK CANCER event on Oct. 16 at The Zoo must wear a F*CK CANCER T-shirt to gain entry. Those new to the event can buy a T-shirt, with lettering in a rainbow of colours in support of various types of cancers, at the U of L Bookstore for $25. Those who want to use their T-shirts from last year need only buy a $25 ticket, also available at the Bookstore, to this year’s event.

Riley Miller, ULSU vice-president student affairs, poses with F*CK CANCER T-shirts available at the U of L Bookstore.

The movement began in Montreal in 2010. Julie Greenbaum, one of the movement’s co-founders, wanted to honour her mother who had died after a battle with ovarian cancer. Since then, F*CK CANCER charity events have been held in Ottawa, Toronto, London, Ont. and Los Angeles.

Last September, Riley Miller, now the ULSU vice-president of student affairs, brought the event to Lethbridge and raised $8,000 for the Jack Ady Cancer Centre.

He hopes to raise even more money for cancer this year.

“Ideally, the goal is to go above and beyond that so I hope that people who participated last year had a good time and will come out again and we can raise $10,000,” says Miller.

The event has special significance for Miller since he’s a cancer survivor himself. In 2011, he underwent treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“It’s a different twist on how cancer fundraisers go and bringing awareness to a cause. It reaches out to our age group and instead of mourning, it’s celebrating,” says Miller. “The public is more than welcome to join in on the movement.”

The F*CK CANCER event starts at 9 p.m. Oct. 16 at The Zoo and features several guest DJs.

Horns play with greater purpose

trevor.kenney — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:30:40 +0000

Erica Williams’s father Len was able to get out of bed and go for a walk the other morning. For that, his daughter was thankful – it was a good day.

Since being diagnosed with terminal cancer in April, the good days have dwindled for Len, and likewise for his daughter, a fourth-year forward for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s hockey team. That has not dissuaded Erica from pushing forward with a positive attitude culled from the example her father displayed throughout her childhood in Weyburn, Sask.

Erica Williams has taken a positive approach as she deals with her parents' illnesses.

“I obviously don’t know what he’s feeling right now but I can understand that he wants to be his best for his family so he’s decided not to do any more chemotherapy treatments and is just focusing on the quality of his days,” she says. “I think that’s pretty courageous, but he’s a pretty brave guy so I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.

“There are days where I’m sure he’d want to just lay in bed but he still manages to get in the car and come out here to Lethbridge and spend some time with me for a couple days – that’s just who he is.”

Williams and her teammates will have Len on their minds this weekend when they take on the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan Huskies for a pair of Canada West games at Nicholas Sheran Arena (the puck drops at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday night). The entire weekend will double as a fundraising effort for the Len Williams Coaching Legacy Fund and the Jack Ady Cancer Centre.

“I couldn’t imagine,” says Erica, her voice cracking, “being on a different team because they have all been so supportive, everyone has done their best for this.”

Williams is self-described as “pretty loud”, an outgoing personality, but that has all changed since the phone call she received late one evening in April.

“I’d talked to my mom beforehand about the tests my dad was getting and we’d broken it down into option one, two and three, with three being the worst-case scenario where they had found cancer everywhere,” says Erica. “When she called, all she said was “It’s option 3” and I had to end the call and cry it out.”

Four days later, Erica returned to Weyburn, having postponed her finals to be with her family. The night she arrived home, her mother suffered a stroke, further compounding the family’s troubles.

After an extensive hospital stay, her mother is recovering, and Erica says the family had a very good summer. Her father was able to take part in a number of community events in support of the legacy fund established in his name, and reconnected with countless people he’d influenced as a coach and prominent Weyburn citizen.

For Erica, getting back to school and playing hockey was an important aspect of returning some normalcy to her life. Now in her fourth year, she is readying to graduate with a double major in psychology and sociology. She has already applied to graduate school at the U of L, looking to get her master’s of counseling in psychology or, as a back-up plan, apply to the social work program.

“As every day goes by I think about what was good that day,” she says about how her philosophy on life has been affected by her parents’ illnesses.

The support she receives from her teammates has been invaluable.

“There are a lot of times when nothing is said but nothing needs to be said. They’ll just come up to me and give me a pat on the back because they know what I’m going through and I know what it means,” she says. “We don’t talk about it but we don’t need to. They are so understanding – it’s hard to put into words.”

The weekend’s activities will include a raffle and silent auction, as well as a jersey auction of the special periwinkle-coloured jerseys the Horns will wear against the Huskies.

Over the summer, Williams and her family raised in excess of $65,000 for the legacy fund, helped in no small part by the contributions of her famous uncle, Dave ‘Tiger’ Williams. The former Toronto Maple Leaf great was able to use his hockey connections to bring in a number of items for auction, including two tickets to any Leafs game this season in the Alumni Box, a gift that netted $16,000 at auction.

This weekend, a Taylor Hall signed jersey, four lower bowl tickets to a Calgary Flames game, gift baskets and more will be up for grabs at Nicholas Sheran Arena.

Len Williams won’t be able to attend but he’ll no doubt be on everyone’s mind. His daughter wants the weekend to be a celebration of everything her father represents.

“My dad got to go for a walk yesterday morning, and even though he wasn’t feeling that good, he got to go for a walk,” says Erica. “That was something to celebrate.”

Kovalchuk, Kolb team up for CIHR project

trevor.kenney — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:37:16 +0000

Two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are teaming up to better understand unintended side effects associated with radiation treatment of cancer cells and the difference between female and male patients.

Dr. Bryan Kolb, a neuroscience researcher at the U of L's Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) and Dr. Olga Kovalchuk, a biological sciences researcher who specializes in researching the affects of radiation on cancer cells and nearby cells, are collectively putting their lab teams on the project, which is being funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Drs. Bryan Kolb, left, and Olga Kovalchuk,

Over the next five years, the research team will receive more than $930,000.

The studies, which may lead to the development of male or female-specific treatments that improve the quality of life for all cancer patients, is attempting to solve problems yet to be fully explored - why does radiation delivered in one part of your body to help eliminate cancer cells affect your memory, balance and other behaviours normally managed by your brain - and are those effects different in men and women?

"There's a phenomenon we've heard about called 'radio brain,' where people who receive radiation therapy treatment talk about having memory loss or other side effects, including balance issues, concentration issues and other deficits," says Kolb.

"Chemotherapy side effects are more well known, and occur in about 50 per cent of the population receiving chemotherapy treatments. However, virtually nothing is known about radiation effects, and even less is known about the gender differences."

Cancer patients have been receiving radiation therapy for more than a century but this is the first time that a gender-specific approach has been taken to see how radiation therapies affect the male and female brain.

Kolb adds that it is commonly thought that shielding the area which is not supposed to be affected by radiation was enough to prevent it from affecting non-cancerous areas.

"Because we have heard about the reported changes to the brain and behaviour following radiation therapy, we know that something is changing to affect the brain, even with steps taken to prevent radiation 'spillover', but we don't know exactly how it becomes affected."

Dr. Olga Kovalchuk has been studying the effects of radiation on plants, animals and people for decades, and has developed a number of recommendations based on her work in Ukraine near Chernobyl, the largest nuclear disaster in history.

"We know that in radiation-induced cancers, there are proven differences between how men and women are affected," says Kovalchuk. "With Dr. Kolb's expertise in how the brain responds to various illnesses and treatments, and how gender specific behaviour is determined by the brain, I'm excited about what we might uncover working together on this unique project."

Kolb and Kovalchuk have also enlisted two Alberta Health Services medical physicists working at the Jack Ady Cancer Centre (JACC) at the Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge – Dr. Charles Kirkby and Dr. Esmaeel Ghasroddashti.

Kirkby and Ghasroddashti are responsible for making sure the radiation doses are proportionately measured and that the results are comparable to a human dosage of cancer treatment.

"Their co-operation has been central to our ability to make this project work," says Kovalchuk. "We would not be able to do this without them, and to have them in the community and as research partners is a huge benefit."

Kovalchuk also acknowledges the novel nature of the work, but stresses that it will be very relevant in the future.

"This will be the first large-scale animal model study, with a gender specific focus," she says. "While this project involves rats, we are always thinking about how our research can be moved forward to help people. The data we get here could be used in future studies. This is just the beginning of this process, and because so little is known about it, we have to start somewhere."

Kovalchuk is also the recent recipient of a new CIHR Chair award in Gender, Work and Health. Her research project is dedicated to examining whether men and women are affected differently in nuclear work environments, which includes the nuclear power industry, healthcare and research departments.

CIHR is the Government of Canada's health research investment agency. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health-care system.

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