Keith “Smokey” Siltala of Rocky Mountain House doesn’t flinch or a bat an eye giving blood.
“The more data given, the better the chances researchers have to find a cure to cancer,” he said.
Siltala, 44, took part in a mobile study centre on Thursday for the Tomorrow Project, a long-term research study by Alberta Health Services, Cancer Care.
It’s the third visit to Red Deer for the project.
The Tomorrow Project seeks to answer questions about the causes of cancer and help medical scientists find new ways to prevent and treat it, as well as other chronic conditions such as heart disease.
By mid 2013, it aims to have recruited 50,000 Albertans to take part in the research initiative. They have just over 20,000 so far.
For this visit, 216 Red Deerians signed up, said provincial project co-ordinator Kathleen Murdoch. More than 1,400 participants from the area took part in the project from previous visits.
Participants must be between the ages of 35 and 69 and have never had cancer.
They are asked to give a urine sample and a blood or saliva sample, answer questions about health and lifestyle, and agree to be contacted in the future. Body measurements will also be taken, along with various tests such as blood pressure and a grip test.
Siltala, a regular donator of blood, has been taking part in surveys for Alberta Health Services over the past three years.
He received a phone call about the Tomorrow Project and immediately knew it was something he wanted to do.
“I have a family history with cancer,” he said. “And I’m also concerned if my work — working with sour gas — has an effect.”
Hopefully, he added, by doing things like this, cancer will be eliminated in the future.
Mayor Morris Flewwelling was at the opening of the study centre on Thursday morning in the Harvest Centre at Westerner Park.
Flewwelling, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009, finished his treatment last June and, while doctors continue to watch him, he’s now cancer-free and feeling good, he said.
“It’s important for all of us to support research initiatives like this,” said Flewwelling. “Cancer seems to have been in almost every family, affecting pretty much everyone. . . . We have to continue to dedicate the time to look for causes and a cure.”
The facts when it comes to cancer are indeed bleak, said Murdoch.
According to Statistics Canada, cancer was responsible for 30 per cent of all deaths in 2007. One in two Albertans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and one in four will die from it.
The Tomorrow Project began in Alberta in 2001. Seven years later, it joined forces with other provinces to form the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project, the largest long-term health study of its kind in Canada.
The study centre will be open at the Harvest Centre until Sunday. For those that can’t make it this weekend, there will be another one coming to Red Deer in the fall, said Murdoch.
For more information or to join the study, visit www.in4tomorrow.ca or call 1-877-919-9292.
rfrancoeur@www.reddeeradvocate.com