Your Impact - Relay For Life

Your Impact

Thanks to your community


You are a leader. And you have the power to influence the lives of those around you — the lives of people living with cancer. You can help fund Canada’s most promising cancer research and a support system that makes a real difference for people affected by cancer. Here are some of the ways you’ll be making an impact.

Since 1947, we are the only organization to focus on over 100 types of cancer.

84% of children and 64% of adults now survive at least 5 years after their cancer diagnosis.

Last year, we answered calls and emails from 36,000 Canadians with questions about cancer.

Last year, over 16 million people accessed our credible information on cancer.ca.

We supported 320,000 people through our peer support programs, like cancerconnection.ca.

In 2022, over 540 children with cancer attended our Camp Goodtimes program.

Last year, our lodges welcomed 4,545 guests who were receiving treatment away from home.

Last year, we helped over 234,844 Canadians through our smoking cessation programs.

Paper luminary on grass

$6.7M

In 2023, over 43,000 students from over 201 schools across Canada participated in Relay For Life events. Together, they raised $6.7 million to support those affected by cancer in our communities nationwide.

Why we relay


Each dollar raised will help us transform the future of cancer.

To fund the brightest minds in cancer research and save more lives.

More people are surviving cancer than ever before. Today, around 63% of Canadians diagnosed with cancer will survive at least 5 years after their diagnosis compared to 55% in the early 1990s.

Make healthy living easier.

Our researchers are working to prevent cancer while we promote healthy lifestyles. We shape healthy public policies that protect our health and support people who have cancer, as well as their caregivers.

Support Canadians living with cancer.

We provide a support system to help Canadians diagnosed with cancer live their lives as fully as possible by enhancing their quality of life.

Where the money goes


Your support of the Canadian Cancer Society is vital, as almost all our funding comes from donations from Canadians like you. Below are just a few examples of how your donations and fundraising support our work:

$15

Helps ensure that support is just a phone call away with a caring cancer specialist.

$50

Provides a day’s worth of meals for someone staying at one of our lodges during treatment.

$100

Helps fund innovative immunotherapy research by testing groundbreaking new therapies for people living with cancer.

$500

Sends one child with cancer to a safe, medically supervised camp and give them the summer of a lifetime!

$1500

Helps someone get to their life-saving cancer treatment for three weeks, or fifteen round trips!

$6000

Allows one cancer patient to participate in a clinical trial to test potentially life-saving new treatments.

Join Your School

Join us at Relay For Life to provide hope to those with cancer, support the survivors in our communities, and help us transform the future of cancer one collective stride at a time.

Sign up

Presenting sponsor

Desjardins