Alberta’s ‘Tomorrow Project’ making an impact

As a growing and active company, we believe in arming our employees with key resources and information so they can live a healthy and balanced life. An important piece of this belief is offering ‘lunch and learns’ on a variety of topics that are of interest. A number of our employees  independently participated in the Tomorrow Project, and began educating one another. One employee participant was Julie Visser; we asked her a few questions about her involvement, here’s what she said:

(1)    How did you learn about the Tomorrow Project? : I first learned about the Tomorrow Project from my colleague and friend Carolin Adie about a year ago.  I was immediately interested, but kept getting ”busy” as the year progressed and I think with the talk scheduled at Rogers and hearing about it again, I decided to go
(2)    Why were you compelled to participate? Because I believe it is a good cause, it is important and valuable research for all of us as a society, and because I can! I am lucky enough to be in a situation where I can participate in terms of my health and criteria, so why not!? It is also a good opportunity for self-assessment, self-reflection, awareness  and think about a few things and personal health habits.

(2)    What was the process like? Easy. After I applied online, I received a package in the mail. They followed up with me with a phone call and scheduled an appointment for the testing at their center. I filled out the questionnaire at home which took about 45 minutes, brought it with me to my appointment a few weeks later, and the appointment took about 45 minutes as well. The volunteers are pleasant, helpful and explained what they were doing and why they were doing it. There were blood samples, a urine sample, blood pressure, height & weight, a few questions, basic medical info, etc…

(3)    What can others expect to learn/takeaway from getting involved? Awareness (self & society), importance of health, and it just feels good to participate! It was a fun and easy process.

So several months ago when we were approached by Jordan Debarros, Corporate Communications Advisor for the Tomorrow Project (Alberta’s largest study) to come in a present to our employees, we didn’t hesitate to say yes. Following the well-attended presentation, we had an enormous amount of positive feedback from employees keen on participating in the project, we felt that as a people-focused company, it was important to share with our community. (Check out the information below.)
Watch Debarros interview

Did you know…

that cancer impacts the lives of all Albertans? Or that 1 in 2 men will develop cancer in their lifetimes and 1 in 3 women will receive a cancer diagnosis? Perhaps more grim, is that one in four Albertans will die of cancer.

The Tomorrow Project is an Alberta success story, and the largest health research study ever undertaken in our province. Its goal is to find out more about the causes of cancer and other health conditions. Knowing more about what causes diseases will help researchers develop better strategies to improve our health in the future. To achieve this goal, the Tomorrow Project needs to enroll 50,000 Albertans between the ages of 35-69 who have not previously had cancer (except non-melanoma skin cancer). To date, the Tomorrow Project has enrolled 36,000 Albertan’s. Among them, you may recognize a familiar face, that is prostate cancer survivor and former Dragon, Brett Wilson. Hear his perspective on the Tomorrow Project right here.

Check them out on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn or their website.

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