CANFAR turns 25.
Last week marked CANFAR’s 25th birthday. Bob Leahy reports
CANFAR started operations on October 26, 1987 and remains today the only privately funded charity in Canada that is solely focused on HIV and AIDS research. I’ve worked with them in the past, notably as a presenter in Montreal at CAHR 2012, talking about the excellent report they commissioned through CIHR on the Canadian public’s changing attitudes towards HIV and AIDS, which research has been used extensively since. But more than that, I have a soft spot for them. Simply put, they are such good people who work there.
They’ve just launched a website to commemorate their 25th anniversary featuring a series of videos “Thinking Positive with Valerie Pringle". (Pringle's name will be familiar to many as host of CTV’s Canada AM, CBC’s Antiques Road Show and many others.) In any event the first video in the series features a newly diagnosed young man Leo Polanco talking candidly about his expeieinces and is outstanding. The video is below.
I’ll also direct you to the many voices who have supported CANFAR over the years. You can read their tributes, including one from yours truly, on this page.
Happy anniversary, CANFAR!
- Tags: 25th anniversary, AIDS, CANFAR, HIV, Leo Polanco, PositiveLite_com, research
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About the Author
Bob Leahy - Editor
Award-winning blogger Bob Leahy first made his social media mark a decade ago on LiveJournal.com where there are still to this day almost 3,000 entries of his available to be read. He was a featured blogger on Ontario’s HIVStigma.com campaign, along with PositiveLite.com publisher Brian Finch. He joined PositiveLite.Com at its inception in 2009 and became it's Contributing Editor a year later.
Born in the UK, Bob’s background is in corporate banking, which he gladly left in 1994, after being diagnosed with HIV the previous year. He has chaired the board of PARN (Peterborough AIDS Resource Network) and has been an executive board member of both the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) and the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS). He was inducted in to the Ontario AIDS Network’s Honour Roll in 2005. Bob is currently a member of Ontario’s GMSH (Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance). He also writes for TheBody.com.
In 2012, Bob was honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his work and commitment to HIV/AIDS in Canada.
Bob continues to write for this site while in the Positivelite.Com editor’s seat, with a particular interest in HIV prevention, theatre and the arts in general. He is accredited media for a number of Toronto theatres. He lives in Warkworth, Ontario with his partner of thirty years and three dogs.
