Can­cer Sur­vivors and those who have passed from can­cer were ho­n­oured re­cent­ly in a mov­ing can­dle light­ing and prayer ser­vice host­ed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety (TTCS).

The In­ter­faith Ser­vice and can­dle-light­ing cer­e­mo­ny were held on World Can­cer Day on 4th Feb­ru­ary 2020, at the So­ci­ety’s Dun­don­ald Street lo­ca­tion.

The event al­so marked the start of the 50th An­niver­sary Year for the TTCS.

Directors of the Board of Vitas House Hospice—Ms. Donna Stone (left) and Mrs. Lisa Hadad

TT CANCER SOCIETY

Fea­ture speak­ers at the event in­clud­ed: Pae­di­atric On­col­o­gy Con­sul­tant, Dr. Curt Bod­kyn; PA­HO/WHO Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Trinidad and To­ba­go, Dr. Er­i­ca Wheel­er; Chair­man of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety, Dr. As­ante Le Blanc; and Chair­man Emer­i­tus and Founder the Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety, Dr. George Laquis.

Dur­ing her re­marks, Chair­man Dr. As­ante Le Blanc re­in­forced her com­mit­ment to tak­ing the TTCS in­to the next 50 years, say­ing:

“Fifty years is no small ac­com­plish­ment, it is a mile­stone achieve­ment that many as­pire to reach but few ac­tu­al­ly do. This is his­to­ry in it­self. It is an in­di­ca­tion of the strength of the TTCS and the peo­ple be­hind it,” she not­ed.

Board Members of the TTCS—Mr. Andrew De Freitas (left) and Ms. Charlene Sadler

TT CANCER SOCIETY

Dr Le Blanc added: “This year, we plan to take our right­ful place in the land­scape of can­cer pre­ven­tion and ed­u­ca­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go. We work on oth­er ed­u­ca­tion ini­tia­tives every day. They are ex­ten­sive and al­so take our team in­to com­mu­ni­ties, or­ga­ni­za­tions and oth­er groups through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go, be­cause we un­der­stand that greater knowl­edge will lead to ear­li­er de­tec­tion of this dis­ease."

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Sto­ry con­tent and im­ages cour­tesy TRINIDAD AND TO­BA­GO CAN­CER SO­CI­ETY (TTCS)