12th
Annual Genesis Awareness Breakfast
Medical
Focus:
Women's Health and the Environment.
What are we doing to ourselfs?
Nationally
recognized Keynote Speaker, Dr. Robert Casper,
presented some of the mounting evidence and
most current medical and scientific research
suggesting that the environment may directly
influence women’s health resulting in
rising incidence of reproductive cancers, decreased
fertility and sperm counts and worrisome developments
in several animal species. In addition to adverse
effects of chemical pollutants, the negative
effects of extensive and prolonged artificial
light are an aspect of pollution that we have
largely ignored and which has been shown to
confuse baby sea turtles, to interfere with
bird migration and to lead to increased risk
of breast cancer. Ultimately, it is the moral
responsibility of our society to maintain our
ecosystem in order to preserve its delicate
environmental balance, so that every organism
can experience life and procreate.
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The
12th Annual Genesis Awareness Breakfast
was held on Monday, October 28, 2002, 7:30 a.m., at
The Fairmont Royal York Hotel, in the elegant Concert
Hall with 550 distinguished guests present.
Dr.
Knox Ritchie, Genesis Research Foundation Chairman,
shared podium responsibilities with Special Guest and
Genesis Honorary Patron, Pamela Wallin, Canada's
Consul General to New York. We especially want to thank
Pamela for travelling to Toronto from New York to be
a part of the Genesis Breakfast for the 8th consecutive
year. Pamela Wallin and Dr. Ritchie continue to use
their significant and collective influence to raise
the awareness of women's health and especially colorectal
cancer, since both were unexpectedly diagnosed with
colorectal cancer and successfully treated during the
previous year.
Guest
Speaker, Dr. Andy Smith, Surgical Oncologist
with Sunnybrook Women's College Health Sciences Centre,
engagingly highlighted the need for colonoscopy testing
for the prevention of colorectal cancer and stressed
that 50% of colorectal cancer patients are women and
this cancer should not be considered a "man's disease".
Keynote
Speaker, Dr. Robert Casper, Mount Sinai Hospital,
presented the research evidence which indicates that
the negative effects of extensive and prolonged artificial
light is an aspect of pollution that has been largely
ignored and which has been shown to increase the risk
of breast cancer in women.
This
annual awareness and education event now raises over
$100,000 for women's health and has become the single
most important fundraising initiative for the Genesis
Research Foundation. The Breakfast would not be possible
without the support from our Corporate Sponsors, and
it is with sincere appreciation that we recognize the
generosity of: Annan & Sons Ltd, Belzberg Technologies
Inc., CIBC, Pfizer, TD Bank Financial Group, Thin Data
Inc., TSX Group, George Weston Limited and Zellers
Friends of the Family Foundation.
The Annual
Breakfast is an enormous event to organize and it is
due to the skills and talents of our volunteers and
friends that the Breakfast has become so successful.
A special thank you to Genesis Patrons: Barbara Hall
and The Honourable Barbara McDougall. Event Co
Chairs: Aynne Farmer, Roberta Forrest and Sharon
Gunn. Committee Members: Sylvia Bailey, Donna
Belanger, Julie Brown, Marcie Clevenger, Wendy Dey,
Johanne Gallagher, Dr. Jo-Ann Johnson, Alice Lee, Pat
Mabee, Donna Merber. Breakfast Volunteers: Ellie
Ainsworth, Bonnie Ambrose, Maria Collins, Nonnie Elkins,
Ruth Gannon, Jean Hart, Jean Iverson, Hannah Klein,
Donna Kriekle, Frances Krygsman, Leya Ludwig, Anne Lumbreras,
Fran May, Anna McGaw, Muriel Richardson, Cindy Sinclair,
Franca Vidov, Ann Walmsley, Dianne Yaneff. Student
Volunteers: The Bishop Strachan School and Upper
Canada College. |
