Helping patients recover from cancer treatments faster

This week on Health Matters, though Canada has relatively low air pollution, it still affects our lung health. Dr. Ben Smith discusses a new study from the RI-MUHC. A Canadian first: Dr. Ali Bessissow shares how he is collaborating with Dr. Yen-I Chen for a minimally-invasive cancer treatment. Dr. Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist, shares with Tarah Schwartz what we need to know about monkeypox. And, Le Bal Rouge raised a record-breaking amount for MI4. Mary Arvanitis details the magic of the big night. 

Cette semaine à Question de santé : bien que la pollution atmosphérique soit relativement faible au Canada, elle affecte tout de même notre santé pulmonaire. Le Dr Ben Smith discutera avec nous d’une nouvelle étude de l’IR-CUSM. Aussi, une première canadienne : le Dr Ali Bessissow nous expliquera comment il collabore avec le Dr Yen-I Chen sur un traitement peu invasif contre le cancer. Le Dr Donald Vinh, spécialiste des maladies infectieuses, partagera également avec Tarah Schwartz ce que nous devons savoir sur la variole du singe. Enfin, Mary Arvanitis nous parlera de la magie du Bal Rouge, qui a récolté un montant record pour MI4.

Transcript

Tarah Schwartz: 0:00

Hello there. Thank you for joining us. I'm Tarah Schwartz and this is Health Matters on CJAD 800. On today's show the MUHC Foundation's signature gala, Le Bal Rouge took place and raised a record-breaking total in support of the McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity, also known as MI4. We tell you all about the incredible evening that honored Dr. Donald Shepard, MI4's founder. Also later in the show, monkey pox has taken over the headlines recently, we speak to an infectious disease specialist about what you need to know about this illness. But first, I think we all know in big picture terms that pollution has a negative impact on our environment, but also our health. A new study from a team at the Research Institute at the MUHC looks into what impact air pollution has on our lung health. Dr. Ben Smith, scientists from the RI-MUHC and physician at the Montreal chest Institute is one of the researchers behind this study. Dr. Smith, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Ben Smith: 1:05

Thanks for having me.

Tarah Schwartz: 1:06

So we all know that air pollution is bad. But what did this study hope to determine?

Dr. Ben Smith: 1:14

This study was interested in what the health effects were of air pollution, right here in Canada. Air pollution levels differ around the world, some countries have really high levels. Thankfully, Canada has relatively low levels. But we were interested in whether even at these low levels, can we see effects on our health.

Tarah Schwartz: 1:35

Yeah, I was interested to know that you are wanting to find out what was going on in Canada, because we think about other countries around the world that are certainly dealing with far larger, more complicated air pollution problems than what we have in Canada. So what did you find about low pollution problems and how that affects people's lungs.

Dr. Ben Smith: 1:54

I think there were two main findings. The first, we looked in a large number of adults here in Canada, right across the country. We estimated the air pollution levels right near their homes and we also measured their lung function. The first thing we found was that air pollution levels on average in Canada are low compared to the rest of the world. They're below what some of the air quality standards are, such as the World Health Organization's recommendations. However, we found that even in this lower range, that there were associations between higher levels of air pollutants, and lower lung function, or worse lung health. This was the first finding that even in this relatively clean air environment, that we still see harmful effects and maybe we should revisit what safe thresholds are here in Canada.

Tarah Schwartz: 2:54

And when you say harmful effects, what do you mean exactly?

Dr. Ben Smith: 2:59

That's a good question. In this study, the lung is really the first line of defense for air pollutants, because that's how they enter the body. So we were measuring the lung's response to these harmful agents. We did a test called spirometry, which measures how good the lung is at moving air in and out. What we found was that with higher levels of air pollution, there was impaired or lower lung function in these individuals. This fits into a broader research that's happening here in Canada that shows that air pollution does affect lung function but also clinical events like showing up to the emergency department or being admitted to hospital. In the broader context, what we're seeing is that even at these low air pollution levels, this has impacts on both our lung physiology, but also clinical events like falling sick.

Tarah Schwartz: 4:03

What do you hope to do with this information? And just as a sidebar question, when you say you studied in Canada, did you study different cities? Are you talking about the country as a whole? So I guess it's kind of two questions.

Dr. Ben Smith: 4:15

I'll start with the last question. This study is part of the Canadian cohort of obstructive lung disease, also known as CanCOLD. It's a cohort study that's funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and other funders. And it recruited over 1000 participants from nine sites across Canada. So it had reasonably good representation. It was mainly from urban centers. But nevertheless, we could see important health effects. In terms of the implications of the findings. I think there's really two directions that we want this to go. One is, we hope that this can inform policy decisions. Not just this study alone, of course, but this study combined with studies that are happening across the country. This can help policy decision makers to identify what is the target air quality threshold that we're striving for. We obviously want to maximize the health of Canadians. The second direction, which is a bit more provocative is we found something interesting in this study. That was that people were not equally susceptible to the harmful effects of air pollution. Or put differently, there are some people who seems to be more susceptible to the harmful effects of air pollution and there are other people who seem to be resilient to the harmful effects of air pollution. We used a CT scan or a CAT scan, this is an x-ray that provides really nice pictures of the lung. What we've shown previously is that there's a lot of variation out there, some people have really small airway trees, and some people have really big airway trees. What we found was that depending on the type of airway tree you have; you would be more or less susceptible to these harmful effects of air pollution. In terms of a next step, what we're thinking and quite interested in is, if there are resilient lungs out there and if we could understand what creates a resilient lung, maybe we could help to promote the development of a more resilient lungs so that we don't have to worry as much about the harmful effects of air pollution. So that people are healthy across the whole lifespan.

Tarah Schwartz: 6:49

While you're speaking with Dr. Ben Smith, and we're talking about air pollution and lung health. I want to get back to your research on lung trees, because I have seen these amazing CAT scans of lungs that really do look like trees. And I have to say, I'm so curious, as I'm sure many people are, what their own lung trees would look like. So what is the research that's happening with that now in terms of figuring out who has these really healthy lung trees and how we can all work towards getting them?

Dr. Ben Smith: 7:21

Yeah, that's really the main goal or the main focus of my research these days. So we've have a lot of projects going on. But really, we've examined the trees and several thousand people. We've started to define what is a resilient tree and what is a susceptible tree, that was sort of the first step. We've next shown that some of this must have to do with one's genetics. But it's not just your genetics, because we also see that certain things that happen early in life. Either in utero or during growth and development or childhood; these things influence whether one ends up with a resilient or a susceptible tree. And that's encouraging because that hopefully means that there are periods where we can intervene to promote the more resilient type of lung development. On another front, we're investigating how? What's the mechanism? Why would this type of tree make you more susceptible, and that type of tree make you less susceptible? And on this front, we're looking into maybe it's how these harmful things deposit in the lung. Maybe it has to do with other factors. If you flip it around many of the treatments that we inhale for our lungs, they're also particles that we inhale. And so it may be that we can identify the right type of inhaled treatment based on one's lung structure. So that's another avenue that we're pursuing. There's a lot going on over here at the RI.

Tarah Schwartz: 9:06

Yeah, so fascinating. I absolutely love the lung tree research. And you'll have to keep us abreast of anything that happens moving forward, so we can talk about it. We're talking about Dr. Ben Smith; we're talking about the effects of air pollution on our lungs. But I would be reprieved to have you here, Dr. Smith, lung expert and not ask you a little bit about COVID. Most people feel that COVID has passed many who say that they've had it though, it affects their lungs, and it's something that they still feel. What kind of research or what can you tell us about what's being done looking into the post COVID effects on lung health?

Dr. Ben Smith: 9:37

Thankfully, at least as we speak, things are relatively quiet over here at the MUHC with respect to acute COVID. But we are seeing a lot of patients who have long-term symptoms after their COVID infection. And so we are running a post-COVID clinic and there are other institutions that have something similar. Through these clinics, we're hoping, obviously to provide the best care possible but at the same time also tried to understand exactly what this entity is and how best to treat it. So it's certainly a work in progress. But we're always trying to be there for these patients.

Tarah Schwartz: 10:24

Yeah, work in progress, I'm sure. Dr. Ben Smith, I want to thank you so much for joining us on Health Matters. I really am interested in your research, especially on the lung trees. So I hope you'll come back and tell us more about it as you get more information.

Dr. Ben Smith: 10:35

It would be a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Tarah Schwartz: 10:38

Next up on Health Matters finding more precise and less invasive ways to treat cancer. I'm Tarah Schwartz. Welcome back to help matters on CJAD 800. Medicine is always advancing with the development of new technologies and new treatments for patients. One of the ways doctors are working to help patients live longer and healthier lives is by using procedures that are less invasive, which helps to reduce recovery time. Dr. Ali Bessissow is working on a project that uses minimally invasive treatments with Dr. Yen-I Chen, an endoscopist at MUHC. See, Dr. Bessissow is an interventional radiologist at the MUHC. And he joins me now. Hello, Dr. Bessissow.

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 11:21

Hi, thank you for having me.

Tarah Schwartz: 11:23

Let's start with your title. What is an interventional radiologist?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 11:30

Very good question. It's a relatively new specialty where we use image guidance or X ray, ultrasound to perform minimally invasive procedures.

Tarah Schwartz: 11:44

And what are some of the procedures that you perform?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 11:47

The fun thing about interventional radiology is that we have our hands on a bit of everything, but a lot of our practice is for oncology, cancer care. For example, if someone has a tumor in the liver, we can put a small needle inside the liver and burn the tumor. The patient comes in the morning with the cancer and then go home with no scar and just no longer having cancer. We stop a lot of bleeding in the body. So if there's trauma with little bleed or a chronic bleed, we can stop the bleeding. And also we treat a lot of women issues such as fibroid and help with fertility.

Tarah Schwartz: 12:27

Wow, that's incredible. When you say it like that they come in with cancer in the morning, they go home with no cancer and no scar. You mentioned that it's a relatively new title, relatively new specialty. What's new in your mind? How long is around?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 12:41

This specialty really started expanding in the 1980s. Because of new technology, and it's

Tarah Schwartz: 12:46

I have to ask you, Dr. Bessissow, are patients really picked up in the 1990s and the 2000s, where we start having the tools to perform those procedures. So it's really in the last 20 years to that specialty expanded and that technology followed it to be able to perform this procedure surprised when they come in for a procedure. I mean, I guess without any scarring, without any surgery all through minimally invasive ways. they understand sort of big picture what they're coming in and how there's going to be no scar. It's minimally invasive, but are they surprised when it's over? And they think, Wow, is that it?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 13:27

So we do 90% of our procedure with the patient awake and with only sedation. So they sometimes talk to us throughout the procedure. At the end, they're surprised that they're able to go through major procedures like this being awake and a lot of them are surprised of how we can do a lot of things now without having to put patients to sleep who are going to major surgeries.

Tarah Schwartz: 13:55

Is that rewarding for you, as a doctor to be able to do these kinds of procedures, talking to your patients, hearing them right there on the table while you're talking to them.

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 14:05

It is. Often it is an immediate result. Especially when we do tumor ablation- when we burn tumors. That's very rewarding, because they come in with literally a cancer and they leave without a cancer. That's very rewarding, or when we stopped bleeding, we see the immediate effects. It's very rewarding. And it's also interesting to be able to talk to the patient during the procedure because that helps us. They tell us when they are having pain, so I'm going to give them more sedation. Or they're really anxious so I will keep talking to them. It creates a different bound with the patient that we don't have otherwise.

Tarah Schwartz: 14:41

Yeah, it's so fascinating. We're speaking with Dr. Ali Bessissow, we're talking about less invasive ways, much less invasive ways to treat cancer and how that is making a huge impact on patients. Dr. Bessissow you're working with another doctor Dr. Yen-I Chen on a project. Tell us a little bit about that.

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 14:59

Absolutely. The interesting thing about our project is that in medicine, people would tend to work in their own specialties. Me and Dr. Chen, we are actually friends from med school. We started working across specialties that he's a gastroenterologist, I'm an interventional radiologist. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to find new way to treat cancer, especially pancreatic cancer.

Tarah Schwartz: 15:24

And what do you hope to learn? How are you hoping to learn more about treating pancreatic cancer?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 15:32

Pancreatic cancer is really a debilitating cancer. The cure rate is very low, but patient live with this cancer for a long period of time. One way that we're trying to help them is that as the pancreatic cancer progresses, the cancer can compress the duodenum so the patients are not able to eat. The standard treatment is to put a stent across the tumor, for example. But those stent block 40 percent of the time. We worked on the new technique that we started in the U.S. but we brought here to Canada. We're the first ones to perform that new procedure in Canada, where we connect the stomach to the small bowel away from the tumor so that they're able to eat and drink. Without any chance of the stent blocking in the future or very low risk of the stent blocking in the future. So it's really rewarding to be able to provide those patients with quality of life after their diagnosis of cancer.

Tarah Schwartz: 16:36

That's just what I was thinking about as you're mentioning, the impact on the patient is enormous, isn't it?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 16:43

It's something that you can't imagine. Having someone who cannot eat, who often went weeks; two-three weeks of not eating, and then suddenly, a day after a person is able to eat. It is great. One of our early patients that we did. I remember her; this woman of Italian origin. And she told me, all I want to do is I want to be able to eat pasta a few times in the time I have left. I went to see her two days after the procedure, and she was eating pasta that her husband had brought her and she was so happy. And I think that's what we aim for; the quality of life that we aspire to give back to those patients.

Tarah Schwartz: 17:27

Absolutely. And how long is this procedure been going on that you're able to do this?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 17:32

So we started about two years ago. It took a year and a half to really develop the technique. Now we're even working on new tools to be able to make it available everywhere in Canada. Right now, we're the only Centre in Canada that does it. We really believe in it and that's part of the research we're trying to do. We're trying to standardize it and find new ways to make it accessible to everyone across the country. Yes, I'm sure Wow, that's incredible. Now, you mentioned that it's unusual for doctors who have different specialties like you and Dr. Chen to work together. Why is that? Why are more doctors across different specialties not working on things the way you are? As physicians, we do tend to work together. However, we all have our specialties and a way of doing things, especially in the procedure field. We do procedure in our way, we're trained in a certain way. Us coming together in the same room doing a procedure together is something that's new and not very common, but at the end that benefits the patient.

Tarah Schwartz: 18:44

Yeah. What are the benefits like other than this specific pancreatic cancer treatment that you're talking about? Are there other benefits to patients bringing specialties together like that?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 18:55

Absolutely because we started with that. But then now we have expanded it to other diseases. So we also work together for biliary tree stones. We also do the same thing for cancer of the biliary tree, cancer of the liver. Every day, every month we come up with new ways of working together to make it better for the patient and safer.

Tarah Schwartz: 19:23

We're speaking with Dr. Bessissow, we're talking about less invasive ways to treat cancer patients, how that impacts patients, which is enormous. I imagined Dr. Bessissow, that it also makes a huge difference in the health care system. If people recover faster and get home quicker. There are more beds and staff available for patients in general. What are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 19:43

Absolutely correct. We noted that when we started doing the new procedures; in terms of cost-saving for the health care system- it's a lot. If I tell you that 40% of those patients with tumor come back to the hospital and would have to get admitted to the hospital. So it is a big impact on the patient side. But if you just take from the system point of view, there is less visits to the emergency room, less chemo interruptions, so they get better treatment, less admission, they use less beds in the hospital. Overall, it's not only the patients that gain from those procedures. It's the whole system that's better.

Tarah Schwartz: 20:26

It certainly is. Dr. Ali Bessissow, it's been an absolute thrill to hear the kind of work that you're doing and the impact that you're having on patients' lives. It's really wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time for joining us on the show today.

Dr. Ali Bessissow: 20:40

Thank you very much for having me.

Tarah Schwartz: 20:43

Next up on Health Matters, it has been taking over the headlines. What do you need to know about monkey pox? I'm Tarah Schwartz and this is Health Matters. We have been living with COVID 19 for over two years now. And we are all much more aware of infectious diseases than we were before the pandemic hit. So many of us had questions when monkey pox began to make headlines. And while we've been learning more about it, we wanted to consult the best of the best to explain in a clear and measured way, what we need to know and what is misinformation. Dr. Donald Vinh is an infectious disease and genetic disease specialist at the MUHC and the RI-MUHC. He's one of our go to experts. Dr. Vinh, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Donald Vinh: 21:25

Thank you for having me, Tarah.

Tarah Schwartz: 21:27

Public health officials are relaxing some, most COVID measures, what would you recommend for people who are worried or concerned about getting COVID for the first time or concerned with getting it again?

Dr. Donald Vinh: 21:40

COVID is definitely not finished right? For example, in the last two weeks, we tallied about 4000 cases each week across the province. And while those numbers are going down, we have to remember that the restricted testing policy, this tells us that this is only an underestimation of what's going on. So because COVID is still circulating, and because it is definitely possible to get re-infected with COVID, even when you've had it before. What I would suggest for those who are concerned is to minimize exposure. And one easy way to do that is have your activities outdoors rather than indoors, if possible. But if you're going to be indoors, and you're going to be concerned, wear a mask, minimize crowding and ensure good ventilation.

Tarah Schwartz: 22:18

And what are your thoughts on how Quebec is doing right now during the pandemic? Because if you go outside, if you go inside, you really get the sense that people have moved past it.

Dr. Donald Vinh: 22:30

Yeah, you do. And the thing is a part of it is based on the metrics that we're using, what are the Quebec government is using which is what are the confirmed cases, hospitalizations, absenteeism rates from schools, and deaths. If we look at only these measures, all of these measures are decreasing and that is really reassuring. But we have to remember, they're not where we would like them to be. On the Island of Montreal, we're still getting about 110 cases daily. And still province-wide have about 1000 COVID hospital beds dedicated to COVID patients. We have to hope that these continue to drop over the next few weeks. But at the same time as the decrease, we have to remember that the government has to address gaps in our system. We never addressed ventilation in schools and other older buildings. We haven't addressed the shortage in health care personnel. And let's face it, we've become grossly understaffed with nurses, lab technologists and paramedics. We have a backlog of patients whose care have been delayed because of the pandemic. And then we have this undefined magnitude of long COVID. So while I hope things continue to improve, I hope we also don't become complacent about improving our system.

Tarah Schwartz: 23:39

That's a really, really good point. I want to talk about monkey pox now. So first of all, were you surprised to hear that monkey pox was something that we were dealing with at this stage? Where, as you mentioned, COVID is not over? Did this come as a shock to you? And it was like, Oh, my goodness, something else?

Dr. Donald Vinh: 23:57

It certainly was an eye roll moment. I have to tell you; I was on call for the lab at the MUHC. My very astute colleague clinician Dr. Sapha Barkati, contacts me because she was seeing a suspected case; the first suspected case at the MUHC. And she says, I think we have monkey pox. And it was a really an eye roll moment. I said, Oh, no, not again. So that was our reaction.

Tarah Schwartz: 24:21

And so what does the average person need to know about monkey pox?

Dr. Donald Vinh: 24:25

First off, monkey pox is a virus, but it is completely unrelated to COVID. Actually, monkey pox is a cousin of smallpox. And while smallpox was globally eradicated in 1980, monkey pox has been essentially restricted to western and central parts of Africa where it's been causing outbreaks annually for the last five decades. Just one thing, the name is a misnomer. It doesn't come from monkeys. Its reservoir is somewhere in the wild that involves rodents, and you can get animal to human transmission when a person handles or perhaps eats or consumes an infected animal. In the classic form of monkey pox, you actually get two phases. The first phase, which occurs about one and a half to two weeks after infection actually has flu-like symptoms, so fever, sore throat, cough, and then you get the second phase where you get the skin lesions, which is where the name pox come comes from. An infected person can then spread it to other humans, either through respiratory secretions during the flu phase, or through the infected fluid in the pus skin lesions. So that's what people need to know, generally about monkey pox, although the current outbreak in Quebec seems to be restricted right now.

Tarah Schwartz: 25:36

And what are people saying? What are you learning about how it got into Canada and why we're seeing it now? Is there any new research or new understanding about that?

Dr. Donald Vinh: 25:46

Right now, the current outbreak in Quebec is 25 confirmed cases. And I think about 30 other suspected cases. But all of the 25 confirmed cases so far, are men aged 20 to 50 years old. There may be an epidemiological link between some of these individuals in that they may have participated in a common activity, or visited a common site, or been in close proximity to a common person or animal who had confirmed monkey pox. So we're still trying to figure that out. But of course, it's possible that those individuals when they themselves were infected could have infected other people causing a ripple effect. And so what we're seeing right now is an outbreak for which we don't have a clear understanding of the trajectory of this outbreak.

Tarah Schwartz: 26:32

Dr. Donald Vinh is an infectious disease expert at the MUHC. See, we're talking about monkey pox. So let's talk about how contagious it is.

Dr. Donald Vinh: 26:41

Well, that's a great question. And unfortunately, there's no clear answer. That's because despite causing disease for the last five decades, there was very little research on monkey pox. And why? Because it was essentially restricted to parts of Africa. So we call this a neglected disease. Now, what we do know from the research in Africa is that the contagiousness depends partly on the monkey pox strain. So there's a strain from West Africa, that tends to be less contagious and less fatal. Then there's one from Central Africa. While we don't have data yet on the Canadian monkey pox strain. But data from Boston, Portugal and UK -which may be related to the Canadian cases that we're seeing- suggests that they're seeing the West African strain. Now if that's the case for what's going on in Canada, that would actually be more reassuring. But it doesn't mean, we have to ignore it. Because going back to your question about contagiousness, we do know from African studies that transmissions within households can be as high as 50%. That's because the spread can occur for both respiratory secretions and infected skin fluid. So what we have to do now is realize that there are at least 25 cases, the horse is out of the barn, there's probably going to be more cases. And we have to focus now on mitigating community transmission.

Tarah Schwartz: 27:56

And what about you said it's a cousin of smallpox? So does that make it easier to treat? To have a vaccine for? What are the what is that process now?

Dr. Donald Vinh: 28:07

There's actually two parts of that question. How do we treat it? Is there a vaccine? In terms of the treatment, to be honest with you, because monkey pox has been in neglected disease; essentially restricted to parts of Africa. We don't really know which drugs work well against monkey pox. We have some ideas; there have been some drugs that were initially developed for smallpox that may be effective for monkey pox. We certainly have access to those medications if we need to use it in the case of a severe case of monkey pox. But we don't really know how well that works. Then we asked ourselves, what about the vaccines, like you mentioned. What we do know again from African studies, which are very key, is that if you had a smallpox vaccine, you have about 85% protection against monkey pox. Using that lesson, what we're doing now is we're actually rolling out smallpox vaccination, at least in a ring vaccination strategy to targeted clusters of individuals who may have been exposed to try and boost their immune system to fight off monkey pox before they become a full blown syndrome. And that's not only going on in Quebec, but it's also going on in other parts of the world.

Tarah Schwartz: 29:22

Since you mentioned a few times that it's considered a neglected disease, are there concerns that this could become much bigger than it is? I don't want to use the word pandemic, because I feel like that seems really, really big. But are there concerns that could become bigger than what it

Dr. Donald Vinh: 29:37

The answer is yes, and it could possibly even is? become a pandemic. Let's remember Tarah for an infection to cause a pandemic. There are three key elements needed. One, it needs to be a germ we have not seen before. Two, it needs to be globally distributed. And three, it needs to be contagious with what we call a high attack rate. Now COVID fulfilled all three. What about monkey pox? Well, monkey pox is a germ we haven't seen before. Its distribution globally is not entirely clear at the moment, but there are at least 200 confirmed cases in 21 countries. So that's probably the tip of the iceberg. So now the third point is what is its contagiousness or its high attack rate? Does it have one? We don't know and we don't want to find out. So that's why we have to do things like ring vaccination to try and get this outbreak under control before becomes larger.

Tarah Schwartz: 30:26

I can't believe we're talking about this. Dr. Vinh, it's always eye opening to speak to you; a little frightening as well, but it's really important to be kept in the loop.

Dr. Donald Vinh: 30:35

It is. I think that we have to realize that we have to remain informed and educated to be vigilant. But I don't think we should be panicking. When we get into a situation where we don't know where we have a gap in our knowledge; the strategy is you fill that gap. You gain the knowledge, you don't panic. Panic is when you have either abandoned hope or is there are no other measures to try. And we are far from that.

Tarah Schwartz: 31:00

A wonderful, wonderful, hopeful note to end on. Dr. Donald Vinh, thank you so much for joining us on Health Matters. I appreciate your time today.

Dr. Donald Vinh: 31:08

Thank you very much, Tarah.

Tarah Schwartz: 31:10

Coming up, for the first time in two years, the MUHC Foundation was able to hold its fundraising gala. We'll tell you how much was raised. I'm Tarah Schwartz, you're listening to Health Matters. A few weeks ago, we spoke with the MUHC Foundation's Director of Events about what goes into planning a fundraising gala. The answer was a whole lot. After a year of planning, Le Bal Rouge took place on Friday, May 27, and was a spectacular evening of incredible entertainment, stunning decor, delicious food and special prizes, all to raise money for the McGill interdisciplinary initiative in Infection and Immunity, known as MI4. The gala honored Dr. Donald Shepard and raised an incredible amount. But I will let Mary Arvanitis, Director of Events for the MUHC Foundation reveal the grand total. Mary, thank you for joining us again, especially as you are recovering from the fundraising gala. How are you feeling?

Mary Arvanitis: 32:03

I'm feeling fantastic. Our team and our staff here at the MUHC Foundation is thrilled with the success of Le Bal Rouge.

Tarah Schwartz: 32:14

in your words, describe what that evening was like. I mean, we have it up everywhere on social media, on our website. So if you want to see it, it was absolutely gorgeous. But Mary, describe a little bit about what the evening was like.

Mary Arvanitis: 32:26

Honestly, it went perfectly with our theme Bal Rouge was on fire. I have to say the energy was vibrating throughout the venue. It was positive, vibrant, enthusiastic, but throughout not only with our guests, our volunteers, all the staff, the catering staff, everyone. It was beautiful. And I have to say, two years being without an event, Tarah, it was a moment that we realize that everyone is ready. Events are back and people want to have a good time. Everyone should have seen that dance floor. It was packed. It was honestly amazing to see people having a good time. They were so into mingling again, and seeing people that they haven't seen over this past two years. It was phenomenal. Honestly, the guests made that room just vibrate with the positivity, the enthusiasm. It was riveting. I loved it.

Tarah Schwartz: 33:39

The ball gowns- people were wearing gowns in beautiful colors. And yeah, the room was so gorgeous too with flowers. Like you mentioned after so many years of just kind of hunkering down and being so careful to finally let her hair down a little bit and to have this beautiful room... Oh, it's just gorgeous. What was your favorite part? Did you have a favorite part?

Mary Arvanitis: 34:04

It was so glamorous and glitzy. Those serpentine tables with the wavering roses and candles. It was honestly spectacular. My favorite moment I have to say was Gabriella Laberge. When she was on that stage and she sang, This Girl is on Fire. Everyone had goosebumps, the whole crowd went crazy about this wonderful artist.

Tarah Schwartz: 34:34

Gabriella Laberge was from America's Got Talent. She wowed the judges. She's from Quebec, and she performed at Le Bal Rouge and she did an absolutely astounding job. As Mary said, she had everybody up on the dance floor. So let's talk about the final amount. We are speaking with Mary Arvanitis; the MUHC Foundation's Director of Events we're talking about Le Bal Rouge an annual fundraising gala. So Mary, what was raised?

Mary Arvanitis: 34:59

This was our best year in the five galas that we have done. This year, we were able to raise $2 million for MI4.

Tarah Schwartz: 35:13

Incredible! Did you expect to surpass your fundraising record? 2 million is quite a tally for one night.

Mary Arvanitis: 35:20

Absolutely not! You know when you dream big? As our campaign says -this was our big dream. And we surpassed it by quite a bit and we are thrilled.

Tarah Schwartz: 35:34

I know that you have some people that you absolutely want to thank Mary. So I give you the floor to do a couple of those thank yous for a moment.

Mary Arvanitis: 35:41

A big thank you has to go out to Julie Quenneville, the president and CEO of the MUHC Foundation without her direction, and her dreaming big, this would not have been possible. As well as Norman Steinberg, who is our Chair of the MUHC Foundation. Also we have our three phenomenal co-chairs Melanie Bernier, Ian Edwards, Ivan Vella. I would be remiss not to thank our 120 volunteers who were present at Le Bal Rouge. They brought all the excitement also as well. We were such a wonderful team. There was a gourmet meal by the celebrated caterer Armando Arruda and his incredible culinary team. I cannot express all the different moments; you ask which moment was my favorite. There were so many. Not to mention. Dr. Don Shepard's riveting speech. I think everyone could have spent another 30 minutes listening to him. He's phenomenal.

Tarah Schwartz: 36:57

I absolutely agree. Dr. Donald Sheppard is the founder of MI4. He was honored at the Bal Rouge. I'm sure if you watch CTV or any media in Quebec or across Canada, he has been with us throughout the COVID pandemic, explaining things to people helping put everything in perspective dismissing misinformation. He really is an extraordinary human being. And we were very proud to honor him. Mary, you had put a note in one of our folders today saying Don't hate me, but I'm starting to plan Bal Rouge 2023. Why do we have to start planning it already, Mary?

Mary Arvanitis: 37:33

Yes, we are. We have to! So I'm already in touch with venues that I'm interested in for next year. I've already started a mood board for the theme. So a full year to plan something of this caliber.

Tarah Schwartz: 37:52

And congratulations to you and to your entire team. Because honestly, it was a spectacular event that I think made people very, very happy. And you raise money for a really, really wonderful cause. So from all of us- a huge, huge congratulations.

Mary Arvanitis: 38:07

Thank you very much. And it took our whole MUHC Foundation team. This was a labor of love throughout our whole Foundation and it couldn't have been the big success without everyone's input.

Tarah Schwartz: 38:22

Absolutely true. And I really hope that those of you listening would like to see a selection of pictures and videos from Le Bal Rouge because it was honestly truly spectacular. It was a feast for the eyes. So follow us on social media at MUHC Foundation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or head to our website MUHC Foundation dot com. It really is worth seeing because the pictures say it 1000 words. And there are many words to describe Le Bal Rouge. So once again, Mary, thank you so much and congratulations.

Mary Arvanitis: 38:53

Thank you so much, Tarah.

Tarah Schwartz: 38:55

I'm Tarah Schwartz. Thank you for tuning in. What would you like to hear about on the show? Write to me at health matters at MUHC Foundation dot com. We are always interested in finding out what health issues you'd like us to talk about, or what experts you'd like to hear from. I hope you join me again next Sunday. Thanks so much for listening to Health Matters and stay healthy.