Concrete poured for first floor of Walker Family Cancer Centre

From left to right, Walker Industries shareholders David and Geordie Walker and cancer survivor Lesley Osmond leave their mark on the new Walker Family Cancer Centre.

From left, cancer survivor Lesley Osmond and representatives from the lead donors to the Walker Family Cancer Centre: Tanya Nixon, Canadian Cancer Society; John Carter, The Branscombe Family Foundation; David Howes, Lincoln Fabrics Ltd; Jan R. Cook, Chair Community Leaders Foundation; Tom Rankin, Rankin Construction; Geordie Walker and David Walker, Walker Industries.

On Monday, November 30, under sunny skies and unseasonably warm weather, local cancer survivor, wife and mother Lesley Osmond pressed her hand into wet cement, leaving her handprint alongside those of Walker Industries shareholders, David and Geordie Walker, as a symbolic gesture to mark an important construction milestone for our new Walker Family Cancer Centre.

Together with other lead donors to the Walker Family Cancer Centre – Branscombe Family Foundation, Canadian Cancer Society, Community Leaders Foundation, Howes Family/Lincoln Fabrics Ltd. and Rankin Construction Inc. – Lesley and the Walkers led a countdown and gave PCL Constructors Ltd. the command to ‘pour!’ to begin the first floor slab of the new Walker Family Cancer Centre. Cheering them on were Campaign fundraising volunteers, NHS senior staff and volunteers, and Michael Sherar from Cancer Care Ontario.

“I drive by this construction site often and take note of the progress; the construction of the new Walker Family Cancer Centre gives me hope for the future,” Lesley said. “I had to drive to Hamilton for my 25 radiation treatments – five days a week for five weeks; over 50 hours driving back and forth – and when you’re battling cancer, believe me, every hour – every minute of life becomes even more precious. I look forward to the day when patients from Niagara can receive most of their treatments here in our community.”

When it opens in 2013, the 67,000 sq. ft. Walker Family Cancer Centre, developed in collaboration with Cancer Care Ontario and the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, will provide comprehensive cancer treatment for Niagara patients. With three radiation therapy rooms, special procedure rooms and chemotherapy treatment, the new facility will provide close-to-home care for the 1,200 cancer patients who currently travel to Hamilton or Toronto for life-saving radiation treatment each year.

It’s Your Time to Help Make History!

In addition to funding equipment for our new Cancer Centre, donations to the It’s Our Time Campaign will enable new regional healthcare services for the treatment of heart disease and mental illness for all Niagara residents, as well as an expanded kidney disease treatment program. Funds will also support equipment for the new hospital that will replace the St. Catharines General and Ontario Street sites, as well as new equipment at all of the other NHS sites.

“These improvements to health care affect each and every one of us,” said It’s Our Time Fundraising Campaign Co-Chair Jan Cook. “It’s impossible for a small group of fundraising volunteers to reach out to all 430,000 Niagara residents, so we need those people that we are able to reach to make their own personal commitment to better health care in Niagara. We need them to be ambassadors for us, and help us raise the remaining $13-million needed to purchase equipment and other urgently needed items for our new health-care complex, Walker Family Cancer Centre and other NHS sites.”

For more information or to make a donation, please contact the It’s Our Time Campaign office at 905-378-4647, ext. 32247. «