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To honour the memory of her late husband, a prominent doctor and golfer in Oshawa, Wendy Long-Davies marshalled family and friends to organize a charity golf tournament to benefit the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

The donor: Wendy Long-Davies

The gift: Raising $270,000 and climbing

The cause: Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation

The reason: To fund thyroid cancer research

After her husband died from thyroid cancer, Wendy Long-Davies spent months wondering what to do with her life.

"And it just occurred to me that maybe I should do something in his memory that would raise money for thyroid cancer research. And I did," Ms. Long-Davies recalled from her home in Oshawa, Ont.

Her husband, Robin Davies, was a prominent doctor in Oshawa and he'd battled cancer for more than 20 years. He died in 2013, just shy of his 65th birthday. In 2014, Ms. Long-Davies got together some family and friends and organized a golf tournament in his honour to raise money for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre where he had been treated. It was a fitting tribute given Dr. Davies' passion for golf and sports in general. The annual event, the Robin Davies Memorial Tournament, has attracted around 160 golfers each year and raised $270,000 in total so far. This year's tournament, on Sept. 10 at the Oshawa Golf Club, will be the fifth and final year.

"I think these things have a life of their own," Ms. Long-Davies said in explaining the decision to hold the last event. "It's really been a wonderful experience to be involved in this. I think I've experienced some personal growth. It's opened up a whole part of life I didn't know anything about. "

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