Who are the people behind your organization?

The organization is mostly operated by our president, Michael Zablocki. He is the person who set up Can Soeur Vive and registered it with the Canada Revenue Agency. He is also the person behind this website and any Can Soeur Vive social media sites. He can be contacted by emailing michael@cansoeurvive.ca.

Apart from being our president, Michael is also a full time school teacher in Hamilton, Ontario. He set up Can Soeur Vive in order to give Canadians an option to donate to GCT research. He is passionate about GCT research because it affects someone he loves.

Michael relies on, and is appreciative of, the continued help from family and friends that have volunteered to assist with donation campaign efforts.

To be more technical, the following roles are registered as:

• Chair of the board: Michael Zablocki

• President: Michael Zablocki

• Vice-president: Lindsey McCarthy-Zablocki

• Secretary: Michael Zablocki

• Treasurer: Michael Zablocki

The bonafide members are Michael, Linsdey, and Emily Zablocki.

Is Can Soeur Vive a registered charity?

We are registered with the Canada Revenue Agency as a private foundation. As such, we issue official donation receipts that qualify for charitable tax credits. Our business number is 717623904RR0001.

We are not able to call ourselves a registered charity because all of our board members are family members and are “at arm’s length”. At the time of our inception we wanted to focus on becoming registered with the CRA as fast as possible so that we could begin giving Canadians a tax incentive to support GCT research, hence why we never expanded our board beyond our family.

Our private foundation status allows us to meet our current needs, but if anyone is interested in joining our board we would encourage you to contact us.

Where are the donated funds going?

All donations to Can Soeur Vive will be sent to the Hudson’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. To learn more about the project please click here. 

The Canada Revenue Agency is aware of our intention to send funds overseas to the Hudson’s Institute. In the unlikely event that we are unable to send donated funds to the Hudson’s Institute we will contact donors and offer to return their donated funds.

Why can’t this research be done in Canada?

It definitely could be done in Canada but we are not aware of any research teams that are interested in conducting it.

This has been explained to us as being due to the fact that GCT is a rare ovarian cancer and is often assumed to have a good prognosis. Hence, research institutions generally do not feel that GCT research is a high priority. 

We counter that GCT’s rarity and uniqueness offer an opportunity to challenge our understanding of cancer. It often seems to be the exception rather than the rule – it has a habit of late recurrence and defies chemotherapy treatment.

The Hudson’s Institute has an interesting project that could lead to better GCT treatments and we would like to support it. They happen to be in Australia, a country that seems to support GCT research more than any other.

We are agnostic about where the research takes place in the world. We simply want it to take place. If a Canadian research team is conducting GCT research we would love to hear from you!

Can I volunteer?

We would appreciate and welcome your help! Please contact Michael Zablocki by email (michael@cansoeurvive.ca) and he will be in touch.