Dear Friends of Cedars,

As Vice-President of the Cedars Cancer Institute, I would like to thank you for your support and participation throughout this past year. This year's annual Golf Tournament had a special significance as we recognized over 40 years of commitment to building Cedars' wonderful philanthropic legacy.

Major developments this past year include providing funds for a new state-of-the-art Pharmacy, by purchasing specialized equipment such as Hoods for the Montreal General Hospital Oncology Day Centre. This special equipment, the first of its kind in Quebec, will assist our pharmacists in their chemotherapy preparations for our many cancer patients. Cedars is proud that this most advanced technology will provide the best in oncology care at the MUHC.

In other news, Cedars launched its newest annual event — the Cedars Dragon Boat Race and Festival. This year, 24 teams paddled to raise funds for Cedars CanSupport/Faire Face, our compassionate care and humanitarian service helping cancer patients get through their diagnosis and treatment at the MUHC. The event was a tremendous success, participants had a fabulous time and raised over $220,000.

We look forward to our Annual Charity Raffle and Auction which will take place at Le Windsor on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007. This year's Abracadabra raffle will host a very exciting live auction and silent wine auction and all proceeds will help purchase new state-of-the-art Molecular Pathology Equipment for the Department of Pathology at the MUHC. This equipment will significantly improve cancer diagnosis. It will also support cancer care at the MUHC by enhancing our health care providers' ability to respond to demands for new molecular tests for our cancer patients.

In addition to the CanSupport/Faire Face program, Cedars is proud to work closely with the Sarah Cook Fund in pediatric oncology. As well, we are pleased to support the Cedars Breast Clinic, the Wilfrid Howick Humanitarian Fund, providing assistance to cancer patients and their families, the Henry R. Shibata Fellowship Grants, the Edward J Tabah Visiting Professor in Surgical Oncology and the Vivian Saykaly Visiting Professor in Medical Oncology. We appreciate the support of the many organizations which we are honoured in calling the "Friends of Cedars", to name a few such as Friends for the Cure, Polo for Cedars and Mamma Mia Women's Association.

Cedars' ability to fund such initiatives is directly linked to your involvement and your generosity, and with this in mind we again appeal to your kindness in supporting our 2007 Annual Membership Campaign.

At Cedars we talk about 'People Giving to People' which is about making a difference in the lives of others. Once again, we appeal to your compassion in helping us make a difference in cancer-care. Please support the Cedars Comprehensive Oncology Program of the MUHC. On behalf of the many cancer patients who will benefit from your generosity, thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Stephen Hajaly
1st Vice President