Archways Centre for CBT

Are you interested in attending #CACBT-ACTCC annual conference but the dates don't work? We have you covered! All sessions will be video recorded and available to registrants for a month after the conference! https://lnkd.in/g-Mx-h52

Anyone Can Tell a Story, But No One Can Own One In 2017 one of my sons was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. He was 15 at the time. 5 years before, this was basically a death sentence with a 5% survival rate. However, an entirely new class of treatments had been created during those 5 years, called immunotherapy. These treatments have revolutionized the treatments of many cancers, but none more so than melanoma. About a third of melanoma patients who receive this treatment are completely cured, another third have the cancer slow down, and the last third show no benefit. We were very lucky, our son Ewan fell into the first category and was completely cured after only 2 infusions. It’s been more than 6 years since his diagnosis, and for a long time I didn’t like to talk about it. I was honestly afraid of “jinxing it;” afraid if I talked about him being cured it would somehow bring the cancer back. I fully recognize as a physician this was unscientific to say the least. But none-the-less I rarely spoke about it. As time went on, I realized that not only could I speak about Ewan’s cancer, I had a responsibility to. Why? Because we can use Ewan’s story to help motivate the public to donate in the fight against cancer. He is alive today because of dedicated researchers who hit many a brick wall in their race to prove these new treatments could work. The researchers only get there with funding. A lot of it. We don’t own Ewan’s story. The world does. People need to hear it. I’m happy to say that my wife and I offered to match donations to the Dalhousie Medical Research Fund (DMRF), up to $50,000. As part of the campaign we told Ewan’s story, and it really helped to rally the troops — DMRF’s Molly Appeal has already raised over $220,000, which is record-breaking. The funds raised will go to pay for grad students in medical research, which helps to leverage the expertise of the senior researchers. For our specific donation, we’re supporting Dr. Carman Giacomantonio’s research into making immunotherapy work even better, for more patients. But folks, the campaign’s not over, and your wallets aren’t yet empty. I’m encouraging you to donate to the Molly Appeal (www.mollyappeal.ca) , and help bring new treatments to the world. And who knows? Perhaps the research you help sponsor today will someday help one of your loved ones. We’re all in this together.