The Origin of the Canadian Cancer Society

In 1929, when the Saskatchewan Medical Association created a Cancer Committee, the major achievement of the Committee was the establishment of the first government supported comprehensive provincial cancer control program in Canada. The report also proposed the establishment of a voluntary medical-lay Canadian Society for the Control of Cancer. As the comprehensive cancer control concept spread across Canada within the provincial medical associations and provincial governments, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), represented by Dr. John S. McEachern, took up the cause of promoting such a voluntary cancer organization. Initially the idea developed slowly but, in 1935, gained momentum when the Governor General, the Earl of Bessborough, initiated The King George V Silver Jubilee Cancer Fund for Canada and financial support for such a project became a possibility. The focus of this paper is on McEachern's shepherding of the voluntary cancer society idea within the CMA and the convoluted path which led to the provision of financial support for the project by the Trustees of the King George V Cancer Fund. The Canadian Society for the Control of Cancer, later renamed the Canadian Cancer Society, was created by Letters Patent on 28 March 1938.