TORONTO — Everyone who’s gearing up for the Rexall OneWalk to Conquer Cancer as part of the ‘Healthy Hooters’ team is a travel professional. Everyone has also, either personally or through family and friends, been impacted by cancer.

That includes Healthy Hooters team captain and travel industry veteran Dianne Jackson. She first started doing the OneWalk with her sister in 2008, back when it was a 60-kilometre trek. A few years later Jackson joined a travel industry team, dubbed ‘The 7 Wonders’. That team did the walk for two years.

Then, in 2016, Jackson was undergoing her own battle against cancer, and she reached out to her travel industry colleagues – including many long-time friends who had walked as part of The 7 Wonders – to form the Healthy Hooters.

The team is now getting ready to take part in the Rexall OneWalk to Conquer Cancer, taking place Sept. 6 – 7, 2019.

The group’s fundraising goal for the Sept. 2019 walk is $16,000, and with help from the travel industry, they’ll make it, and maybe even surpass it.

There’s certainly a precedent. The travel industry is known for its generous fundraising and the Healthy Hooters’ 2016 walk was no exception. That year the team raised just over $30,000 thanks to corporate donations from valued travel industry partners. “Companies like TravelBrands, Redtag, itravel, The Travel Corporation, G Adventures, CAA, Tripcentral, Globus family of brands, Big Bark Graphics, Signature and Transat all made a difference.

This year “we would love to hit $20,000,” says Jackson. To donate go to https://secure.onewalk.ca/site/TR/Walk/Toronto2019?team_id=8921&pg=team&fr_id=1160.

The 2019 Healthy Hooters team includes Penny Martin (The Travel Agent Next Door), Annie Cicvaric (The Travelweek Group), Cheryl Babulal (Ensemble Travel Group), JC Girard (Softvoyage), Suzanne Christie (retired from Open Jaw), Tammy Crane (Sunwing), Leslie Lorette (Avis Budget Group) and Jackson, who joined Red Label Vacations as VP, Retail in June 2019.

The Rexall OneWalk to Conquer Cancer benefits the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and offers two fundraising walks: a 15-km City Nights Walk through downtown Toronto on Sept. 6; or a 15 or 25-km day trip through Boyd Conservation Area on Sept. 7. The two days can also be combined.

Says Jackson: “I have been part of a study on high risk breast cancer for more than 20 years. I was at the hospital at minimum once a year being checked. I have had all the genetic tests and all negative. I still ended up with a 7cm long tumor – one they said I had probably had for around 7+ years.”

She adds: “Early detection is not enough … we definitely need to find a cure and continue to find treatments that enable survivors to live a productive life during and after treatments.”

Donations for the Healthy Hooters team’s fundraising efforts, as part of the Rexall OneWalk to Conquer Cancer benefitting the Princess Margaret Centre Centre, can be made at https://secure.onewalk.ca/site/TR/Walk/Toronto2019?team_id=8921&pg=team&fr_id=1160. You can also contact Jackson directly at Dianne.Jackson@RedLabelVacations.com.