Dollars at Work - Cameron Daye Research Fund

In 2012, Calgarian Cameron Daye was like many young men in their mid-20s – athletic, musical, artistic, focused on his career, and a family man looking forward to marrying the love of his life.

Then, in late July, Cameron was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, a deadly connective tissue cancer characterized by tumours which begin under the skin, between muscles and in surrounding organs. It is most prevalent in children and young adults.

Despite a spirited struggle with his cancer and a period of remission in 2013, Cameron passed away on February 15, 2014 at the age of 28 years.

Over the last few years, Cameron’s father Ron Daye and his company Rangeland Engineering have donated a total of $1.8 million to the Alberta Cancer Foundation. They initially committed $1.5 million to fund the Cameron C. Daye Cancer Research Clinical Fellowship and the Catherine M. Pearson Studentship in Sarcoma Research and followed that investment with countless Rangeland events that have raised an additional $300,000.

"When we turn our efforts on, it's a pretty major effort," says Ron Daye. "Being involved in fundraising like this was also a turning point for Rangeland. It changed our culture a bit and people really got behind us. Now we support numerous charitable and community initiatives at Rangeland.”

Thanks to Ron and Rangeland’s extensive fundraising efforts, researchers have been able to improve outcomes for sarcoma patients and discover new methods for sarcoma management which currently stand to change the standard of care not just for sarcoma patients in Alberta but around the world.