Japanese legend has it that a wish will be granted to anyone who folds 1,000 paper cranes. And in Japanese culture, it is customary to make paper cranes for people who are ill.
Today, a crane ceremony was held at The Hospital for Sick Children to mark the official countdown to the 11th annual Meagan’s Walk event. Students from schools across the Greater Toronto Area gathered at SickKids to give more than 1,000 handmade origami cranes to patient ambassadors who are fighting and have overcome brain tumours.
Meagan’s Walk: Creating A Circle of Hope is an annual walk that takes place on Mother’s Day weekend. The walk starts at Ontario Place and ends with a human chain that “hugs” the Hospital. It began as a tribute to the memory of Meagan Bebenek, who passed away in 2001 from an inoperable brain tumour.
Since 2001, Meagan’s Walk has raised more than $2.5 million dollars for brain tumour research and is an important community partner to SickKids.
This year’s Walk begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 12 at Ontario Place. To register, visit the Meagan’s Walk website.
Today is World Autism Awareness Day. A day to recognize that approximately one in 88 children will be born with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is also a day to recognize the progress that researchers like Dr. Stephen Scherer, the director of the Centre for Applied Genomics at SickKids, have made to understanding and treating autism.
ASD is a developmental disorder that affects the normal development of the brain’s social and communication skills. Children born with ASD often have trouble interacting socially and developing their verbal and nonverbal communication.
In the last decade, inspiring discoveries have emerged from SickKids. From pinpointing new autism susceptibility genes to accelerating the development of autism testing and treatments, the driven and passionate researchers at SickKids have propelled us closer to a cure than ever before.
Our pioneering researchers are working day and night to understand and treat children with ASD.
Our progress in the last few years has been promising. Imagine what the future holds.
March 18-24 is Poison Prevention Week, a week dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers of household poisons and educating parents and caregivers about poison-prevention techniques.
Every year, an estimated 1,280 children are hospitalized for serious injuries due to accidental poisoning. Most of these poisonings, if not all, can be prevented by familiarizing yourself and your family with proper storage, disposal and monitoring techniques.
Today, many homes contain products and chemicals that may cause serious harm to children. Some of these products may be an obvious hazard, but others are common and you might not even realize they are dangerous. That’s why we have assembled the resources below, with the help of our partners at SafeKids Canada, About Kids Health and the Ontario Poison Centre, to help keep your family safe and your chemicals secure.
Accidental poisoning is preventable. So join in and take part in Poison Prevention Week by sharing these guides and resources with your friends, family and colleagues.
Let’s keep those chemicals out of sight and locked up tight.