After being announced as the recipient of the 2017 Allan Slaight Humanitarian Award, the Canadian rock band Rush decided to donate the $40,000 fund that comes with the award to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Research at Sunnybrook Hospital.
"We are pleased to direct this generous donation from the Allan Slaight Humanitarian award to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research at Sunnybrook," the band said in a statement released on Facebook.
"Many Canadian families have been affected either directly or indirectly by this terrible disease. Through Gord's courageous efforts this cause is now getting the attention it desperately deserves. As a fellow musician and friend, it's our turn to help support his efforts to fight brain cancer now."
Gord Downie is also a Canadian musician known as the lead singer of rock band Tragically Hip. He was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer earlier this year.
Dr. James Perry, head of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center thanked the band for the donation and said that the fund will help in their effort to find treatment for the "untreatable."
"Right now we are investigating new drugs, surgical techniques and genetic therapies. We are using ultrasound to reach tumors that couldn't be reached before. The funds so generously donated by Rush will support us as we continue our pioneering work, to the benefit of brain cancer patients not only across Canada but around the world," he said.
The band has been active supporting causes like Doctors Without Borders, United Way and their local Toronto Food Bank.
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