As we head into the fall issue of Leap, you will notice a new face sharing this message. We are excited to welcome Angela Boehm as the new chair of the Alberta Cancer Foundation board of trustees. Angela has been on the board since 2009 and was named chair May 31, 2013. She has been actively involved in our Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, co-chairing the event for two years and is one of three trustees who worked behind the scenes to help make a new cancer centre in Calgary a reality. Her strong background in strategic marketing and finance is an asset to the Foundation and we look forward to her committed leadership to ensure we continue to invest in programs that improve Albertans’ lives.
By welcoming Angela, it means we are also saying goodbye to our past chair, John Osler. John joined us in 2006 as a way to give back to his community. Ironically, he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia the next year and, as he has said many times, the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s goal of a cancer-free future became his personal cause.
John provided visionary and strategic leadership to the Alberta Cancer Foundation as chair for the past five years. During his tenure, he lived and breathed the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. In 2009, he built a team of 25 riders who raised a total of $171,795. John didn’t stop there; he continued to engage others in this epic annual event as a member of the Ride committee, personally securing $3.8 million in sponsorship dollars over the last five years. Furthermore, he engaged his own law firm in an $180,000 commitment over three years and recruited many colleagues as volunteers. In just five years, the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer has allowed the Alberta Cancer Foundation to invest $30.8 million in transformational cancer research, treatment, prevention and care programs across the province.
John, Angela and trustee Heather Culbert were all instrumental in working with the provincial government and Alberta Health Services for a new, much-needed comprehensive cancer centre in Calgary. The city and southern Alberta have outgrown the Tom Baker Cancer Centre – where John received his own cancer treatment – in the past 10 years, so the announcement was long awaited. John represented the board of trustees, staff and donors when he joined Premier Alison Redford on March 1 to announce the centre would become a reality.
We are privileged that John will stay on with the Foundation to help raise $200 million for this facility. We sincerely thank him for his vision, advocacy and unwavering support and for being such a powerful part of Alberta’s cancer-free movement. We would also like to thank outgoing trustee Heather Watt for her support and service. We are thrilled to add four dynamic new trustees to our board: Gary Bugeaud, Don Lowry, Andrea McManus, Sandy Slator, and Greg Tisdale. As we move ahead, we are excited about moving forward with our vision to ensure our donors’ investments have a transformational impact on outcomes that are important to Albertans – earlier detection of cancer, better treatments, better survival rates and better quality of life.
 Angela Boehm, Chair Alberta Cancer Foundation |
 Myka Osinchuk, CEO Alberta Cancer Foundation |