Lila Sigal Marathon Hockey Tournament raises needed funds for hospital program

The 10th annual Lila Sigal Marathon Hockey Tournament raised more than $75,000 in support of the Cancer Nutrition – Rehabilitation Program (CNRP) at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital last  Saturday at the Samuel  Moscovitch Arena in Côte Saint-Luc.

Seventy players participated in this non-stop tournament Alex Kilhorn and Andrej Sustr of the Tampa Bay Lightning were among those who suited up.  Others included Delmar International president and CEO Rob Cutler, Ritz-Carlton Montreal boss Andrew Torriani and former Montreal Juniors owner Farrel Miller.

 

From left to right Farrel Miller (co-chair), Alex Killorn, Andrej Sustr, Andrew Torriani, David Sigal (Co-chair) and Larry Sidel (Vice-President and COO of the JGH Foundation).  Photo by Daniel Wolfe

The play is began at 9 a.m. and continued non-stop until 6 p.m. Each of the five teams played a minimum of  two  preliminary round games plus one playoff game. In addition, a Parent/Child skate occurred.  Former Montreal Canadiens forward Mathieu Darche was the event’s spokesman as part of his work with Delmar, a major sponsor. Over the past decade,  the event has raised more than $500,000 to support the CNRP and made it possible to hire  a nutritionist for the program. The CNRP is entirely privately funded as there is no government support.

Co-chairs of the tournament, David Sigal and hockey buddy Miller, came up with the idea for the tournament to honour David’s mother, the late Lila Sigal, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in  2004.

Rob Cutler of Delmar looking serious.

The CNRP is a key component of the JGH’s Segal Cancer  Centre program. It  provides patients experiencing cancer related nutrition problems with a  coordinated approach that combines nutritional assessment, counselling, and exercise programs with  therapies that directly attack the tumour and proide pain and symptom management. If left untreated,  nutritional problems associated with cancer can lead to progressive wasting, weakness, debilitation  compromised immune function, potential therapy intolerance, and even death. Certain forms of cancer common to Quebec, most notably advanced lung and gastrointestinal cancer, are associated with weight  loss that usually begins at the onset of disease and progresses throughout the course of illness, making  this centre all the more important to Quebecers.

Farrel Miller still has his Montreal Juniors t-shirt.