Guy Lafleur’s accomplishments were not limited to the rink: in the last years of his life, the hockey legend used his notoriety to advance cancer research.
Posted at 4:20 p.m.
In early 2020, he began treatment at the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM) for lung cancer. Impressed by the quality of care, in September 2020 he became an ambassador for the Fondation du CHUM.
“It had a very significant impact when we announced that he was joining us,” said the president and general manager of the foundation, Pascale Bouchard, in a telephone interview on Friday. “It caught the attention of all the media. »
Employees who worked with him remember “his great humility and his desire that the notoriety he enjoyed could be used for something bigger than him,” she said.
In March 2021, the foundation launched the fundraising campaign In team with Guy Lafleur against cancer. “The fact that it was Guy Lafleur who carried out this project, it made it possible to bring together several personalities from the sports world”, such as Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky, indicated Mme Bouchard.
Since then, the fund has managed to raise 1.5 million to fund research. The CHUM was thus able to create a personalized medicine program in oncology.
“The genetic profile of a person and the genetic and molecular profile of a cancer means that two people who have the same diagnosis and who receive the same treatment will not necessarily react in the same way,” explained Ms.me Bouchard.
What personalized medicine seeks to do is use “huge databases, data that we have collected on patients” to determine which treatment works best for each individual. “The idea is to have a better survival rate and side effects that are as few as possible. »
Although Guy Lafleur passed away on Friday from cancer, the fund he created and the program he funded remain alive and well. According to Mme Bouchard, “it’s an invaluable legacy, it’s a legacy that will have an extremely positive impact for generations to come”.
“We lost a great man today, someone who marked generations of Quebecers not only through his sporting achievements, but also through his human qualities. »
This article was produced with the financial support of the Meta Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.