By Pepper Parr
August 6th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Most of us experience reasonably good health – but we all know someone whose health is not good. We hope for the best for them.
When I was a boy, just after the war (the Second World War) polio was the scourge. Dr Jonas Salk had not come up with his polio vaccine yet. Wheel chairs, braces, iron lungs were part of the news stories before the vaccine was discovered.
My Mom was a cook at a YMCA camp; she took me and my brother and sister with her every summer.
In the summer of 1946 I became ill and a smart former army nurse said: This boy just might have contracted polio. She was a tough lady and insisted that I be driven to the local train station where they stopped a freight train with fresh fruit on it and got me into Montreal where I was transferred to the Montreal Children’s Hospital where a spinal tap was done.
I can still hear myself screaming away when the stuck that needle in me. But it worked – the doctors knew what they were doing because research was being done on polio and I benefited from that research.
I was days away from becoming a cripple that would have either a brace on my legs or have to live out of a wheel chair. I still shudder when I am near a person who has to wear a brace and I hear it snap into place.
It was medical research that kept me out of a wheel chair. I have a little difficulty touching my toes but other than that I am reasonably well; at one point was a long distance runner.
Medical research matters – and now those of us who live in Burlington are going to be given a chance to support cancer research.
The man who will entertain us on the 20th of August is dying of an incurable brain cancer. He will be on the stage giving it everything he has.
Gord Downie, lead singer of the Tragically Hip, giving it everything he has. The Hips final concert on their Farewell Tour that will take place in Kingston is to be simulcast to the stage set up in Spencer Smith Park
We have an opportunity to give as well.
Go without something and put as much as you can into one of the two opportunities that have been set up.
This city raised just shy of $1 million two years ago for flood victims. The needed 100 days to make that happen. We have about 15 days – we can raise a lot of money in that time frame.
Don’t let Gord Downie down.
The huge screens will be set up on a stage immediately to the west of the Naval memorial – the event starts at 8:30 – this is a rain or shine evening – bring a blanket or a chair. There will not be any alcohol available at this event nor will there be any sponsorship announcements.
Just the best the Tragically Hip has always done – being broadcast across the nation.
To donate to the Canadian Cancer Society (Halton Chapter) click HERE or visit https://bit.ly/2azm5AN
To donate to the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation click HERE or visit https://bit.ly/2auf6Yc
A pensive Gord Downie will entertain tens of thousands in a CBC broadcast of the final concert of the Farewell tour on August 20th.
If you want to keep up to the second on how the arrangements for the concert on the 20th are rolling out follow the #HipatSpencerSmith
