THE PURPLE ASTER
In Celebration of Late Bloomers!

TIME TO SAY FAREWELL in 2014
Thank you to everyone who supported this fun event which had a great five year run!!!
We are sorry to say that we will not be hosting this event this year due to a variety of circumstances.
If you would like to continue to support the work of The Chordoma Foundation you can make donations in Alison Laird's memory via www.tidescanada.org and direct your donation to The Chordoma Foundation and you will receive a tax receipt.

UNCOMMON AWARD
Thank you to everyone for making it possible for our event to win the 2014 Uncommon Award for our fundraising and public awareness work. This award will be accepted on our behalf in Frankfurt, Germany on June 20, 2014 at the European Chordoma Conference!!

In the spirit of The Purple Aster and in memory of Alison remember "It is never too late to bloom!!".
Follow your dreams and live each day to the fullest.

THE PURPLE ASTER 2013

THE 5th ANNUAL PURPLE ASTER CONCERT & SILENT AUCTION FUNDRAISER FOR THE CHORDOMA FOUNDATION

WHERE? Festival Hall in Inglewood! 1215 10 Ave. SE Calgary.

WHEN? Sunday, June 2, 2013 Doors Open at 6:00 concert at 7:00   $30.00

WHO? This years concert featured Alberta Country Group of the Year, THE TRAVELLING MABELS, Calgary songsmith PAUL RUMBOLT, the amazing keyboard & vocalist MARTY ANTONINI and SEVENTH HEAVEN, official late bloomer CAROLYN HARLEY and Calgary's answer to Tom Waits, J.R. SHORE and THE JURY.

WHY?

The Purple Aster  was started in memory of Alison Laird a dear friend who passed away from a rare and devestating spinal cancer called chordoma.

Alison was a wife, mother of three, an avid reader and active member of a local bookclub. Alison loved travel and adventure. She was funny and wise in her Scottish ways. Beause of her great sense of humour and adventure I know Alison would have loved The Purple Aster! She would have been decked out in her wildest purple and having a great time.

The purpose of The Purple Aster is three fold.

1) To raise funds for research for a cure for this extremely rare form of spinal cancer.
Chordoma is considered an 'orphan disease' because it is so rare that it is extremely underfunded.

2) To raise public awareness about this disease and the need to support funding reasearch for 'orphan diseases'

3) To encourage the performance of original music

We are particularly excited to assist in the research project of Dr. Cheryle Seguin of The University of Western Ontario. We are proud to be part of a Canadian project to explore a possible cure for chordoma!

This years event was a spectacular success with Festival Hall bursting at the seams with people in purple laughing and bidding on the silent auction; enjoying the wonderful hors d'oueves sponsored by Community Natural Foods, sippping Big Rock Beer from another loyal sponsor; being amamzed at the talent on the stage for the concert and enjoying the surprise of an opera flash mob at intermisssion!!

The event raised $14,000.00 which is matched by a donor of The Chordoma Foundation for a wonderful total of $28,000.00 for the evening. An amazing accomplishment for such a small group of volunteers.

Josh Sommer founder of The Chordoma Foundation and survivor of chordoma explained the power of research in the area of rare cancers. Major research organizations are paying attention to the research accomplished by The Chordoma Foundation

Breakthrough in spine research creates a unique opportunity to advance chordoma research

Recently, a biologist at the University of Western Ontario studying spinal disc development, made a scientific breakthrough that unintentionally provided the missing link researchers needed to study the genesis of a type of spinal cancer called chordoma.

After years of work, UWO professor, Dr. Cheryle Seguin, succeeded in developing a one-of-a-kind genetically engineered mouse that enables researchers to observe and manipulate an embryonic tissue called the notochord. The notochord is important because during development it gives rise to the intervertebral disc, the degeneration of which is the primary cause of back pain which afflicts hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In addition to forming the discs, some notochordal cells get lodged inside the vertebrae, and in about 1 in 5 people these notochordal cells form small benign tumors inside the spine. Occasionally, these benign notochordal cell tumors turn malignant and become a cancer known as chordoma.

Little is known about what causes notochordal cells to turn into chordoma, and, as a result, there are no effective drugs available to treat chordoma. Fortunately, Dr. Seguin’s mouse makes it possible to study how notochordal cells can become cancerous. To do so, Dr. Seguin needs to isolate notochordal cells from her mouse and turn them into a cell line – a constantly dividing family of cells grown in a petri-dish. Creating a notochordal cell line will give scientists a blank slate upon which to introduce genetic changes to see which cause the cells to become cancerous. This could shed light on the cause of chordoma, and potentially other cancers as well, and, in turn, could point to potential therapies that address the root cause of chordoma.

Attempting to create a notochordal cell line will cost well over $50,000, but Dr. Seguin needs to come up with just $25,000 to make this project possible. The Chordoma Foundation’s scientific review committee judged this project to be sound and very important for advancing chordoma research. Consequently, the Chordoma Foundation has made raising the $25,000 needed for this project a top priority. Please help us meet this goal so that this important research can move forward by making a donation at

www.chordoma.org/canada

Featured Champion

Annual concert, auction raise funds in memory of remarkable woman – and to provide hope to those still facing chordoma

One thing Alison Laird delighted in most during her eight-year battle with chordoma was proving her doctors wrong. A woman of amazing strength and spirit, she wasn’t about to let cancer rob her of the things she enjoyed – including traveling, dining and talking with others. As she went through multiple surgeries, long recoveries and hospitalizations, and treatments at home in Calgary, Canada and in California, she channeled that strength and spirit into making the most of life – and showing her doctors, family and friends how much she could still do.

“She was always finding the positives in the situation,” recalls her daughter, Catriona (Cat), who was at her mother’s side through most of her battle. “For instance, she always wanted to travel, so when she had to go to California for treatment, she saw it as a dream come true for her to get to visit there!”

On June 12, 2008, at the age of 60, Alison lost her long battle with chordoma. Cat, her father, Ian, and her mother’s close friend Carolyn Harley decided to plan a fundraising event in Alison’s memory to benefit chordoma research. The inaugural Purple Aster Concert and Silent Auction in Calgary drew more than 100 music lovers and friends to hear professional local musicians and learn more about this insidious form of cancer and the need for research funding. Each year, the event has grown – in 2012 the 4^th annual Purple Aster drew 175 participants and raised more than $15,000. A special moment came when Chordoma Foundation board member Dr. Ed Les, also of Calgary and a chordoma survivor who provided a matching gift, told the crowd: “This isn’t just in memory of somebody we’ve lost now; this is a fight for all of us who are still fighting.”

Over the years, “the Aster” has raised nearly $55,000 to support the Chordoma Foundation’s work. The event is a team effort. Carolyn, a self-described late bloomer as a musician (the purple aster is a late-blooming flower), arranges the concert. Cat coordinates the silent auction, and Ian manages the finances. Other friends and family also pitch in.

This year, the funds raised by the Aster were designated toward a Chordoma Foundation seed grant awarded to Dr. Cheryle Séguin, a musculoskeletal researcher at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Séguin, who studies spinal disc development, recently made a scientific breakthrough that provided the missing link researchers needed to study the genesis of chordoma. This grant will help Dr. Séguin’s lab take advantage of the opportunity created by this breakthrough. The Aster organizers and participants are especially excited to support chordoma research based in Canada. (To learn about Dr. Séguin’s research, click here.)

Of the Purple Aster event and the work that goes into it, Cat says: “My mother’s spirit drives all of this. She always had this way of surprising people and proving them wrong. We all feel the same way now. Chordoma doesn’t get to win.”

THE PURPLE ASTER

THE PURPLE ASTER 2012

It's Never Too late to Bloom!!

Val Baldwin waiting for the crowd to arrive!

Here's the crowd at The Loose Moose Theatre!!

Volunteer Ellen Brown.

Mother /daughter Purple Fans! Trish & Julie

Wearing purple for a great cause!! Catriona Laird (in the boa) is the Silent Auction co-ordinator and daughter of Alison in whose memory the event is organized.