All donations made to the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s campaign will be matched up to $25,000.
November 25, 2022 – Alberta – The Alberta Cancer Foundation (ACF) is honoured to announce their Giving Tuesday campaign featuring the powerful story of Jordan Turko—an otherwise healthy 30-year-old who recently received a diagnosis of stage four lung cancer. All donations made to the campaign, starting November 29th, will be matched up to $25,000, thanks to the generosity of Cask Global Cannings Solutions. Funds raised from the campaign will support research, innovation and care at the 17 cancer centres across the province to create more moments for patients like Jordan.
For Jordan, a phone call changed everything. Stage four lung cancer.
“As a super healthy 30-year-old who, a mere month before my diagnosis, was going to hot yoga and hitting the gym 6 days a week, I was obviously shocked to learn that I have an extremely rare, aggressive strain of lung cancer that’s just caused by inherited genetics – not smoking, lifestyle, or environmental factors, etc.,” says Turko.
In early 2022, Jordan had a hoarse voice and back pain. He suspected it was COVID-19, but the hoarse voice lingered for weeks afterward, and despite visiting physiotherapists and chiropractors, his back pain worsened. At the end of February, Jordan visited a walk-in clinic. A series of tests confirmed Jordan had a 4-inch tumour wrapped around his pulmonary artery and tumours growing all along his spine. He was days away from being paralyzed.
His oncologist scheduled emergency radiation and now has prescribed a targeted drug therapy – developed through a clinical trial funded in part by Alberta Cancer Foundation donors right here in our province – which is giving Jordan hope for a better future.
“I do not dwell on the scientific opinion that my lung cancer is incurable and that even if I go into remission, my revised statistical life expectancy is just 8 years – that I’ll die at the age of 38. No. I choose to live. Every day. Every moment,” says Turko.
Jordan may not be out of the woods yet, but he can’t do this alone. He – and the 23,000 other Albertans who will receive a cancer diagnosis this year – need your help.
A donation to the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s Giving Tuesday campaign funds innovation in research, treatment and care at the 17 cancer centres across the province, including the Cross Cancer Institute, Tom Baker Cancer Centre, and the soon-to-open Calgary Cancer Centre.
It means more moments for patients like Jordan Turko.
For a limited time, all donations made to the Alberta Cancer Foundation will be matched, up to $25,000, thanks to the generosity of Cask Global Canning Solutions.
Double your donation. Double your impact. Donate this Giving Tuesday at albertacancer.ca/more-moments
About the Alberta Cancer Foundation
The Alberta Cancer Foundation directly supports the 17 cancer centres across the province, including the new Calgary Cancer Centre and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary and Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton. Our purpose is to create more moments for Albertans facing cancer by inspiring our community to give to innovation in detection, treatment, and care. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we are able to invest in research and care initiatives that will provide real-life returns for Albertans facing cancer. We support every Albertan, no matter what type of cancer they face or where they live in the province.
For more information, contact:
Kelby Schmidt, Berlin Communications
kschmidt@brln.ca
(825) 975 0292
We invite media to contact us to arrange a Giving Tuesday segment or interview with the following:
- Jordan Turko
- Dr. Sangha, Jordan Turko’s oncologist and Director of Clinical Trials at Cross Cancer Institute
- Wendy Beauchesne, CEO of the Alberta Cancer Foundation
A video about Jordan’s story and the End of Year campaign can be found here.
For more information on Jordan’s story, visit: albertacancer.ca/more-moments