Donor profile: for the love of Chris

Donor profile: for the love of Chris

beingwell magazine Winter 2007
By: Stacey Starkman

Fifteen year-old Mike Stephenson cut off his mop of dyed purple curls this summer. It was an act tinged with sadness and defiance, timed to benefit the second annual Chris Stephenson Memorial Golf Tournament and Dinner. In shaving his head Mike raised $3,000 in honour of his eldest brother, Chris, who died in 2004 at the age of 20 after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

The oldest of Glen and Linda Stephenson’s four sons, Chris was planning to be a firefighter like his dad. Although he wasn’t able to finish the college program, Chris’ Certificate of Approval for the firefighting course, which he passed with flying colours, is proudly displayed in the Stephenson household.

Now Mike is planning to follow his brother’s path and hopes someday to become a firefighter too.

After Chris’ death, his family wanted to commemorate his life, which had been governed by the typical teenaged pursuits of hockey, golf and spending time with friends and family. In between chemotherapy treatments and despite four surgeries, Chris still played hockey and managed to keep a part-time job at a golf course, with the help of his brother, Robert, and best friend, Eddie, who picked up his shifts so the job would be held for him.

It was his love of golf that prompted his parents, with the assistance of Chris’ close friend and neighbour, Alex Freeman, to run a charity golf tournament to benefit both the Hospital for Sick Children, where Chris received most of his treatments, and Southlake Regional Health Centre, where he was seen when he first fell ill.

“The family agreed we wanted to donate the money to make sure the services are there for someone else who needs the care,” Mr. Stephenson explains. “It would have been nice to have a top notch cancer care centre close by; it’s too bad Chris couldn’t have gotten his treatment up here.”

Eighteen-year old Jeff Stephenson, third of the four Stephenson boys, agrees with his dad. “I think it’s great that the new cancer care centre is being built,” he said.

It is the memory of countless trips and hundreds of hours spent on the long drive to the Hospital for Sick Children, often with an extremely ill child, or during an emergency in the middle of the night, motivating the Stephenson’s desire to help other families in similar situations.

The 2006 golf tournament, held at the Cardinal Golf Club in Kettleby, raised $19,000 from the sell-out crowd of 300 guests and from the salaries and tips donated by the club staff on tournament day. Together with the money raised at the inaugural tournament, Southlake has received $16,000 for cancer care from the Stephenson’s efforts in just two years.

Linda Stephenson has high praise for the treatment Chris and the family received at Southlake and, like Mr. Stephenson, wishes Southlake had been his primary care hospital.

“Having the cancer centre in Newmarket will be ... a lot better for families than going all the way downtown,” she said. “I hope we can truly make a difference.”

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