A benefit concert for brain cancer research is happening this weekend in Hamilton.
The proceeds will go toward a memorial fund at McMaster University.
University of Guelph professor Thomas Graham’s wife Cindy passed away in 2021 after living with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.
Her brain and spinal cord were preserved and donated to Dr. Sheila Singh’s lab for research.
He said he learned about this benefit concert after learning one of his students had a family connection to it.
From there, he connected the student’s family with Dr. Singh.
“Ingrid’s (Watermann) sister, Rita, wanted to help Ingrid raise some funds to go and do whatever clinical trials she could (to get) some hope,” Graham said.
“And some of that hope comes from the research that she said part of this concert she wanted to put on, she would donate some of the funds to Sheila’s lab and Cindy’s fund because that’s driving the hope.”
Graham said the concert’s title is a play on the word glioblastoma, due to the fact that the terminal brain disease does not leave patients with a lot of hope.
Cindy’s brain and spinal cord donation has not only inspired several others to do the same, but he said they’ve created a scholarship fund as well.
“We knew she was going to donate her tissue,” Graham recalled. “But I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be a nice add-on to support the grad students and the young research scientists that will be working on that with essentially a scholarship program to help support them?'”
In a statement on the event’s website, proceeds from the ticket sales will be dedicated to the scholarship, which Graham said has about $180,000 so far.
In order to be sustainable, he said it has to get up to between $400,000 and $500,000.
The event will also have a silent auction to support Ingrid, who Graham said has since passed away from GBM.
He said Cindy’s type of donation has never been done before and the new information and insights that can be gained from that donation is unprecedented.
Graham said her name will forever be tied to whatever solutions come from brain cancer research.
“When someone gets that diagnosis, and if they’ve done any reading, they’ll know it’s terminal. I’m hoping when they get that diagnosis tem years from now that they’ll say, ‘Oh, we can treat this. I’m not necessarily going to die,'” he said.
Michael Kaeshammer will perform at the McIntyre Performing Arts Centre on Sunday at 2 p.m.
You can head to the ci.ovationtix.com website to purchase a ticket.
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