RACH raises over $46,000
for brain tumour research
North Star,
Community,
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
by
Stephannie Johnson
PARRY
SOUND – Amid the cheers from fans, two local youths recovering from
brain tumours threw the first pitch at the fourth annual Rallying
Against Cancer Hardcore (RACH) three-pitch baseball tournament
Friday evening.
Watery eyes and wavering
smiles dotted many faces of those who stood proudly while the St.
Peter’s School children’s choir sang O Canada in both English and
French.
The annual tournament
began after local resident Rachel Higgins began her own fight with a
brain tumour in 2003. The tournament’s name also has a double
meaning, standing for Rachel Anne Cecilia Higgins. The young woman
lost her cancer battle in 2005, but the tournament has been going
strong, raising more than $150,000 in three years, and more than
$46,000 this past weekend.
While organizers were
hoping to raise $70,000 this year, Joanne Higgins, Rachel’s mom,
said she was pleased with how the event turned out.
“It was a good weekend,”
said Ms Higgins. “Our numbers were down on Friday, I think because
it was so cold. The 32 teams played well and the live music was
great. The Dirty Little Swing Thing from Barrie was just awesome. It
really was a lot of fun.”
The first place team
this year was the Frank Penfold team followed by the Horseshoe Pines
Marina team.
Rachel’s uncle, Don
O’Neill kicked off the weekend-long event by congratulating the
community and RACH tournament volunteers for their continued
support.
“As you all know, we’re
here to raise money for brain tumour research, but specifically for
image guided surgery (at the Princess Margaret Hospital),” said Mr.
O’Neill. “It provides real-time imagery, which allows the surgeon to
perform the surgery to remove a tumour more effectively. It enables
them to get the tumour out and (not do) any damage to the healthy
tissue around that tumour. It also benefits the patient. They
recover faster and their quality of life while they’re recovering
and after going through their treatment is that much better as well.
The money that we raise collectively is going to that fantastic
cause, thank you very much.”
Kaitlin Unterman, a
representative from the Princess Margaret Hospital, said the
tournament was just one of over 150 fundraising events held across
the province that has raised more than $5 million for the hospital.
“On behalf of the
foundation we are absolutely thrilled to welcome the fourth annual
RACH tournament into our 2007 fundraising campaign,” said Ms
Unterman. “To the RACH committee, donors, sponsors and participants
I thank you for your continued support.”
Also on hand to lend
their support and play a little baseball were the men and women with
the Firefighters of York Region team.
The firefighters met
Rachel in December 2004 while she received treatment at the Princess
Margaret Hospital and the group grew close to the inspirational
young woman, said firefighter Shaun Mitchell.
“We were visiting Rachel
on numerous occasions when she came down to Toronto for her
treatments and we were invited to the RACH tournament and our first
tournament was in 2005,” said Mr. Mitchell. “We dedicated the 2005
calendar to Rachel and we’ve been involved with the tournament
since. Our top fundraising event was here in Parry Sound when (her)
family went out and basically pre-sold upwards of 350 calendars.
Then we came up here and we sat here for literally four hours. We’ve
always had really good support here. This community has set a lot of
really good records.”
With a Grade 9 Parry
Sound High School student David Louch as catcher, Calvin Gasper, 10,
threw out the opening pitch Friday.
Last year, just before
his 10th birthday, Calvin became severely ill and, following several
trips to the hospital, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
The soft-spoken youth
underwent eight-and-a-half hours of surgery using the real-time
imagery technology to remove the tumor that had wrapped around his
brain stem.
Following his surgery,
Calvin went through 32 chemotherapy sessions and spent two months at
a children’s recovery hospital in Toronto.
After learning to walk
again and suffering though some vision problems, the youth has now
had two clean MRI’s and is cancer free.
Calvin said he wanted to
be involved with the tournament after going though his own battle
with cancer.
“It’s for cancer and I
wanted to help,” he said simply.
Originally published at
http://www.parrysound
