RegencyCare to join “Weekend to end breast cancer” walk
Friday, September 2, 2005 -- Craig Anderson
Staff representing RegencyCare’s sixteen homes are currently training to participate in the annual Weekend to End Breast Cancer sixty kilometre fundraising walk, and hope to better the $60,000 they raised last year, says Marg Toni, director of resident services.

Marg and other RegencyCare staff will join a throng of up to 4,000 participants on Sept. 9th to 11th for the annual walk, a fundraising initiative for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. The two-day walk winds its way through Toronto neighbourhoods, beginning at Lakeshore and eventually arriving at Landsdowne Park.

Sponsorship support, Marg says, has been a team effort, involving residents and staff and their respective families. Even the home’s product suppliers have contributed by sponsoring each individual walker, who must raise a minimum of $2,000 dollars to participate.

“It’s hugely important for us to be involved in initiatives like this,” says Marg, who has received what she calls ‘sizeable’ donations from family and friends. “We’re part of the community, and for breast cancer specifically, because the majority of our staff and residents are women. It’s the right thing to do.”

Marg raises the inter-connectedness of the world often highlighted by tragic events – RegencyCare was also involved in the tsunami aid effort – as reason enough to extend support in any way possible.

“When you have the number of homes we now have,” says Marg, “all of these catastrophes touch you, because you might have staff or family members who could be involved in any of these things, so we need to do it.”

Resident’s councils have aided the fundraising effort by holding bake sales, BBQ’s, and other events.

“The response has been tremendous,” Marg says.

Seven of the walkers are returnees, and this year will see the addition of two men, a change from 2004, when all of RegencyCare’s walkers were women.

The walkers have been training for weeks, singularly and as a team, with group walks ranging from 10 to 15 kilometres. Long walk training is reduced in the week previous to the event, Marg says, who has been diligently walking five times a week. The first day – a taxing 35 kilometre route – is the toughest, but a sense of being united for a cause will provide an added boost, she says.

“It’s really an exciting time,” Marg says.