A Brief History of Prostate Cancer Support Toronto
The group started as Toronto Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group on May 26, 1994 with a meeting of interested people at the old board room of the Toronto Hospital. We can never thank Dr. John Trachtenberg enough for giving his time and arranging rooms and encouraging us.
We joined Prostate Cancer Canada Network (PCCN) in 2011 which promised support groups across the country some support and a possible source of income for our expenses.
In 2020, PCC merged with the Canadian Cancer Society, which is primarily a fund raising organization. We were forced to change our name and logo and so became Prostate Cancer Support Toronto. We became somewhat orphaned along with most of the other support groups in the PCC network. This change brought further de-emphasis on the support groups. (More detail on the merger and Covid-19 can be found here.) Prostate Cancer Foundation British Columbia (PCFBC), which was an umbrella group for the B.C. support groups, welcomed the PCCN groups and later formed Prostate Cancer Support Canada, which we are now part of.
In Memoriam
The group would like to remember the following, in no particular order, who made significant contributions to the group over its history. Many served on the board of directors in various capacities; others were regular attendees at meeting. Please report any errors in this list and also any names that you think should be added.
Note: most of them have died of causes other than prostate cancer itself.
- Wally Hamilton
- Moe and Roz Wagman
- William Gow
- Al Philbrook
- Joe Feldman
- Ossie Roberts
- Rolf Kroger
- Tom Keys
- Sol Dennis
- Patrick Vernon
- Bill Mandel
- Ron Nicholson
- Stan Mednick
- Aaron Bacher
- Ray Kosan
- Bill Sceviour
- Rudy Phillips
- Maurice (Maury) Budin
- Jim and Lise Moran
- Bill Hofstettet
- Harry Lockwood
- Tino Cotaras
- Dick Arai
- Leo Spindel
- Norm Roth
- Ray St-Sauveur
- Richard Lorie
- Jerry Stevens
- Ray Turner
- David Lunt
- John Dell
- Ken Hunter
- Bill Lifcus
- Glen Tolhurst
- David Fine
- Gordon Burchill
- Ken Vesey
- Anthony Iozzo
- Doug Phillips