Beginnings

In 1998 a child of Cambridge came to the public’s attention in a tragic way. Mark Gage was caught in the Parkhill Dam and drowned along with his would be rescuer Constable Dave Nicholson. For days as recovery work was being performed, the riverbanks and windows of nearby buildings were filled with people feeling the pain as if these were their own loved ones. Cambridge and the surrounding area showed how emotionally tied and how compassionate they were by the 3 day vigil they kept day and night.

In 2000 Wesley Price, another child in the community of Cambridge, was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare and usually fatal genetic disease which causes high blood pressure in the blood vessels in the heart and lungs. This same disease had previously claimed the lives of his two younger sisters.

Dr. James Gowing an oncologist at Cambridge Memorial Hospital realized that there was a possibility that sildenafil citrate, a key ingredient of the drug Viagra, could cause a chain reaction in Wesley to open up the blood vessels in his body and improve blood flow to his lungs. A major setback for the family was the expenses the family was about to incur. Also, Pfizer the drug company who makes Viagra was not willing at the time to provide this drug as an experiment to the Price family for free.

The community of Cambridge always compassionate, rallied for the family to raise money for Wesley’s medical expenses. Since Wesley’s father was a city councillor, and the family’s story was so tragic, the case became high profile both locally and nationally. There was an outpouring of community spirit the likes of which had not been seen since the earlier drownings. There were well planned fundraisers such as a walk to raise money towards the cost of the Viagra. Donations poured in. Thankfully Wesley is still with us today though his medications have had to change over the years.

Since those events, time and time again there have been families across this country struggling with the emotional and financial burden of being with their children at times of critical illness. Families of children with critical illness often have to make decisions no one should have to make at a time when all emotional resources should be spent caring for their sick child. Most often those families, who are lucky enough to have them, rely on the concern of their relatives, friends and co-workers to initiate community fundraising so that they may be spared the additional duress. Some have not been so lucky; whether they do not have the family network or work for smaller companies or are new to town and have not yet built up a network, the reasons for this are all various. Worries of financial devastation including bankruptcy should never be part of the picture.

Since the Wesley Price fundraising, this writer has struggled with how we can continue to capitalize on the proven compassion of our community and affect real change by providing financial help to all those in need. For this reason, the Cambridge Community Foundation was approached for advice on setting up a fund, which could keep on giving. The Kiwanis Club of Cambridge was also approached to be the patron of the fund. Thankfully both wholeheartedly jumped on board.

Through their partnership, an endowment fund and a flow through account have been set up. The purpose of the flow through account is to enable a donor to donate directly to an individual child’s family at the time of immediate need. The endowment fund’s interest will be place into the flow through account while the principal of the fund remains intact. Both accounts allow for charitable receipts to be given to the donor. Donors will have the option of donating to either account or portioning their donation to both.

Eventually over the years it is hoped that $1 million will be in the endowment fund. It is felt that this amount of money will be needed because of future downturns in the financial market. Because that goal seems like an insurmountable one, each yearly community fundraising effort will have a level of $100,000. While the endowment fund is necessary, we cannot forget that the actual money given out comes from the flow through account to the families and without monies in that account, there will be no relief to the people who need it. Therefore a special effort will also be needed to realize a significant amount of money in that account while the endowment fund is building.

The success of this funding programme, will enable us to build upon it and take it across the entire country as one of the next steps.

Jan Liggett