“Funding research is close to my heart because it is the key to give us all more time. For me, the Cancer Research Society represents our best hope to outsmart cancer.”
Cancer is a disease that touches so many people. We all know a person or loved one who has faced cancer. But for Canadian actor and comedian Stéphane Rousseau, cancer has played a tragic role in his life and the lives of his loved ones.
When he was just 12 years old he lost his mother, Berthe, to colon cancer. His father Gilles succumbed to the same cancer in 2003. Then, in 2009, his older sister Louise died of breast and lung cancer. More recently, cancer also claimed the life of Stéphane’s close friend, the Canadian composer Patrick Bourgeois.
“When someone has cancer, it affects everyone in the family,” reflects Stéphane. “You get angry at the disease. I only have fragments of memories of my mother. I no longer remember her voice, her scent. She spent the last five years of her life in the hospital, and she was so fragile, we had to wear a mask and gloves to visit her.”
These mounting, personal losses deeply affected Stéphane and led him to play an active role as a spokesperson for the Cancer Research Society.
“Time is precious,” he says. “I want researchers to find solutions. Time is what I miss most with the people I’ve lost to cancer. They all left far too soon.”
Since 2010, Stéphane has dedicated himself to raising funds and awareness about a disease that continues to touch his life, and the lives of those around him. He believes that, over time, research breakthroughs will save more lives.
In the face of loss, Stéphane remains optimistic about the progress of research, especially when we consider important advances in treatment and the improvement in cancer survival rates.
“Funding research is important to me because it is the key to give us all more time,” Stéphane says. “For me, the Cancer Research Society represents our best hope to outsmart cancer.”