Toast to the Queen Canada & Rotary: President Danny started the meeting with the clang of a bell and a toast to The Queen, Canada and Rotary.
Grace: N/A
Attendance: 14 (including 1 guest, Dorothy Evans, guest of Basil and past president of the Markham Sunrise Rotary Club).
Announcements:
David Seemungal announced that the oxygen concentrators that our club arranged are now in transit to the Palliative Care Society in Trinidad.
President Danny announced that we are invited to the Toronto Rotary Club’s meeting on Friday to hear a report on the St. Vincent Disaster Relief Project in which our club participated.
President Danny announced that 30 surveys about the conduct of our future lunchtime meetings were sent out, 24 were opened and 20 were completed. A plan will be put together by Club Services based upon the survey results.
President Danny has received a list of restaurants from Scarborough Renewal Association as possible locations for our in-person luncheon meetings. Gerd suggested that we discuss this decision at a full club meeting, and Danny agreed to consider this option.
Sgt-at-Arms, Gerd, requested Happy Thoughts from everyone and the contributions included:
David Seemungal was happy that he was able to take his daughter out two days in a row.
Past President Gord was happy that the Canadian women beat the U.S. in the semi-finals, and also happy that family and friends are healthy.
President Elect Courtney was happy with the Jamaican women’s medal count for such a small island, together with Andre De Grasse’s gold!
Arthur and Al Meredith chimed in with some corny jokes, and were quite jovial in their presentations. Laughs and groans abounded.
Basil was happy that Charles Whitney contacted him and asked him to convey his regards to the club.
Peter was happy to receive a Thank You card in the mail from our Past President, thanking him for his contribution to the board last year.
Hans was happy that his wife finally got her elective surgery performed after so many Covid delays.
Gerd was happy to show a map of his flight to Attawapiskat, Ontario that is located on the shore of James Bay, transporting owls back and forth. He also delivered some fresh fruit to the locals who were extremely happy, because they are so isolated up north that they rarely receive fresh fruit. Gerd felt like Santa Claus!
President Danny was happy to host a barbeque with people he hadn’t seen for two years. A normal enough event in normal times, but a special event in these extraordinary times.
Our Member Arthur Retnakaran on “Can We Reduce Cancer by Early Detection?”
Arthur was introduced by President Danny.
Arthur introduced his subject with a detailed explanation of cells and cell divisions, pointing out that there are 10 quadrillion cell divisions involved in cell reproduction. So, with so many cell divisions involved, you can imagine the mistakes that can occur in cell replication. Two sets of genes determine whether cells become cancerous of not. They are Positive Control genes and Negative Control genes, and when either of them develop mutations that prevent them from controlling cell division, cancerous tumours are the result. Arthur then itemized several known causes of cancer, such as tobacco, alcohol, environmental factors, poor diet, viruses, and many others. Every type of cancer has its own signature which can now be detected in the blood in order to diagnose the patient. Circulating Tumour DNA (ct DNA) is the element that the doctor is looking for in the patient’s blood in order to determine that a cancerous tumour exists in the body. The signature of this ct DNA is compared to a catalogue of cancer signatures assembled from actual cancer patient profiles. Therefore, a particular type of cancer can be detected in this fashion even before symptoms appear. This early detection process is 99% accurate. Most of the research work into ct DNA was performed at our very own Princess Margaret Hospital. Using this research, the medical community is moving away from individual tests for specific types of cancer to a “one test for many cancers” approach.
Arthur presented a very in depth but easily understood analysis of how medical science now allows us to reduce cancer through new methods of the early detection of a multitude of cancers with one type of test.
Announcements:
Sgt-at-Arms, Gerd, requested Happy Thoughts from everyone and the contributions included:
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