The saying goes that every person either has, or knows someone, who has cancer. The disease seems to touch everyone somehow.
The Canadian Cancer Society, long committed to fundraising for cancer research, has once again launched Daffodil Days in an effort to raise money and awareness about cancer. The annual fundraiser runs every year in late March and early April.
Daffodils a Symbol of Hope
The Canadian Cancer Society uses bright, yellow daffodils to help promote cancer awareness and raise funds for cancer research. Thousands of supporters around the country buy bunches of daffodils to help support the cause and kick off the group's spring fundraising campaign.
Thousands of volunteers across Canada head out every April in a national door-to-door campaign to raise money for cancer research. Volunteers also work to raise awareness about cancer during the campaign.
Daffodil Days a Long Tradition
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, Daffodil Days began in Toronto, Canada in the 1950s. A group of volunteers organized a tea to raise funds for the cancer society and decorated each table with daffodils.
The event soon came to be known as daffodil teas. Soon, other volunteers began arranging daffodil teas while another persuaded local restaurants to donate part of their revenue to the Canadian Cancer Society on the opening day of its spring campaign in 1956.
Restaurant patrons also received a daffodil when paying for their meal -- a practice that soon lead to the sale of daffodils as additional revenue.
The sale of daffodils raised more than $1,200 in its first year, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. The idea was later used by other provincial organizations, as well as the American Cancer Society.
The Canadian Cancer Society is currently the world's largest buyer of daffodils and growers in the Canadian province of British Columbia schedule their plantings to insure enough live blooms are available for the campaign, the society adds.
Canadian Cancer Statistics and Facts
The Canadian Cancer Society lists a number of statistics about cancer on its website. Based on current facts, close to 40 per cent of Canadian women and 45 per cent of men will develop cancer in their lifetime.
Approximately one out of every four Canadians will die from cancer.
- An estimated 166,400 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in Canada in 2008, and 73,800 died from the disease.
- Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related death among both men and women.
- The five-year average survival rate for all types of cancers combined (excluding the province of Quebec) is 62 per cent.
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