Hello friends & family.

The Hicks Family is supporting the McEwen Stem Cell Institute who are taking on Heart Disease at UHN. We participated in a fun “stay at home” Car Karaoke (by making a short video) for Stem Cells and we hope you will support us with a donation to the McEwen Stem Cell Institute. We set a lofty goal of $5,000 & Stem Cells  the total of all donations made for our team. Any amount is appreciated, it all adds up!

Heart disease runs in both of our families. My mother, Frances, died at 48 from heart disease & Jim’s dad, Bob, had his first heart attack at 41. This is a cause we passionately support & are very excited about the progress made so far & what the future holds.

Singing our way to "human clinical trials" repairing damaged hearts - The Deets

First, the current state of research at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute. They are very close to repairing scar tissue in damaged hearts and they want to be "first in human" in the next 2-3 years!

The McEwen Stem Cell Institute are leading the world with heart cells created from stem cells. In 2016, Bayer AG and Versant Ventures launched a new biotechnology company, BlueRock Therapeutics to develop new cell based therapies to treat heart failure and Parkinson's disease. The company was founded on the ground-breaking research of their Director, Dr. Gordon Keller; McEwen Scientist, Dr. Michael Laflamme and their colleagues at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre.

The McEwen team is working to produce the best cells to repair damaged hearts. It is likely that the PeterMunk Cardiac Centre, here at UHN, will be one of the sites where the first patients receive heart muscle cells generated from stem cells. This is a wonderful time for Canada to shine in healthcare and particularly with heart disease.

Our Video

It was hard to get us all together but we did it while visiting Andrew’s family at their cottage last week. So instead of singing in a car, we sang in a boat. The kids picked the song to sing along to - One Kiss by Dua Lipa. It was fun, a little embarrassing & super silly!!

The last year & a half have made it impossible for the Institute to raise unrestricted funds to support the scientists in their research.

Click the link above to view our video & to make a donation.

Heartfelt Thanks,

Jim, Sandi, Andrew, Sarah, Steph, Will & their kids, Leah, Riley, Kate & wee Franklin.