L ocal 793’s 12th Annual Gary O’Neill Memorial Golf Tournament again attracted hundreds of golfers keen to play their part in the fight against esophageal cancer. The tournament was held on June 9 at the Rattlesnake Point Golf Club in Milton in honour of Local 793’s former president Gary O’Neill, a keen golfer who passed away in September 2011 due to this deadly disease. Local 793 Business Manager Mike Gallagher spoke fondly of his friendship and golfing rivalry with O’Neill, and thanked the sponsors, organizers and volunteers for delivering another successful tournament. He urged all those present to, “Continue to work to make this event bigger and bigger and bigger and raise money for a great cause to help find a cure for this disease.” Since its inception in 2012, the tournament has raised more than $1.3 million for the Esophageal Cancer Program at University Health Network in Toronto. That department is headed by Dr Jonathan Yeung, a surgeon scientist in the Division of Thoracic Surgery. Dr Yeung also attended the event and took the 12 th ANNUAL GARY O’NEILL MEMORIAL GOLF TOURNAMENT
opportunity to thank participants and provide an update on the latest research his team is conducting. This included the development of new surgical techniques to improve patient outcomes and the discovery that esophageal cancer attacks the X chromosome. This goes a long way to explain why the disease kills eight men - who only have one X chromosome - to every woman. Dr Yeung said, “Rates of lung cancer and breast cancer are going down and esophageal cancer is going up and we rely on events like this to enable us to conduct research on why. “It always amazes me how many people come out for this event and the organization that goes into, so I want to thank you all very much.”
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