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The Ride to Conquer Cancer
Since 2008, the Ride To Conquer Cancer has raised an amazing $28.5 million. This two-day 200 km cycling event from Toronto to Niagara Falls has become Canada’s most successful cycling fundraiser – an amazing achievement for all involved.
For a detailed document of how Ride funds support cancer research at The Princess Margaret, please click here.
After expenses, over $19 million has been directed to the highest priority cancer research initiatives at The Princess Margaret. The return to Foundation of over 66% far exceeds what is considered by the industry as an acceptable return for an event of this magnitude. To attract a large number of registrations and donations and run an excellent and safe event requires significant investment in marketing and logistics.
Princess Margaret uses a social enterprise model across many of its fundraising activities. That means we outsource much of the marketing development, fundraising support and execution to firms who specialize in these areas. While we do have some excellent corporate partners, there are still many expenses the event incurs for both success and safety -- everything from feeding participants to securing police support to rental of venues and port-a-potties.
The success of the first Ride in Toronto has allowed the event to expand to Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal in 2009, and again in 2010. The Ride also appeals to people outside of Canada as riders from 14 states and four countries have participated.
These are big bold events and it takes significant funds to advertise an event like this to get the participants and donations, and then to support and run these events. It is only through a number of different and large events like this that Princess Margaret is able to sustain its research program and support its position as one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world.
In the end what matters is that over $19 million of net funds has been raised to support the world-leading cancer research programs at The Princess Margaret, all focused on advancing new therapies and understanding of this awful disease – to extend and save more lives.
All audited details from the 2008 Ride are available in the 2009 PMHF Annual Report. Financials on the 2009 Ride will be available in the next Annual Report, which will be published in September, 2010.
Impact of the Ride to Conquer Cancer
The Ride funds are being used to support and ensure the sustainability of the leading cancer research initiatives at The Campbell Family Institute at The Princess Margaret. We have three areas where these funds are directed:
Programs The monies are used to support promising new research programs such as our Immunotherapy program led by Dr. Pamela Ohashi and Dr. Tak Mak, support our cancer stem cell program led by Dr. John Dick and Dr. Ben Neel and our leading tumour hypoxia program led by Dr. Brad Wouters and Dr. Michael Milosevic.
Platforms The monies are also used to support research platforms where The Princess Margaret is a world leader, such as image-guided technology and robotic surgery, our world leading clinical trials program that support specific cancer types and a world class BioBank initiative.
People The Princess Margaret has over l50 highly skilled basic and clinical scientists and over 1,000 people all employed in our research enterprise. The funds from The Ride help support the people who keep the research going and this activity helps maintain our position as one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world.
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