CIBC Caribbean Thursday presented a combined total of XCD$89,135.20 to the Saint Lucia Cancer Society and the Faces of Cancer, representing the proceeds of Walk For The Cure 2025, the bank’s flagship annual cancer fundraising initiative. The handover ceremony, held at the Harbor Club and attended by corporate sponsors and representatives of collaborating agencies, also served as the official launch of Walk For the Cure 2026.
Each beneficiary organisation received XCD$44,567.60. Both organisations acknowledged that the annual proceeds from Walk For The Cure represent their single largest injection of funding each year, support that has become foundational to the delivery of their programmes and services.
Accepting the cheque on behalf of the Saint Lucia Cancer Society, President Alison Chester expressed heartfelt gratitude to CIBC Caribbean for a partnership she described as consistent, generous, and genuinely life-changing for the individuals and families her organisation serves.
Dorothy Phillip, Founder of Faces of Cancer, was equally effusive in her thanks, and used the occasion to share an update on new initiatives her organisation has introduced since the last handover. Among the most poignant is the provision of hypoallergenic comfort dolls to patients in care. The practice of offering soft, specially crafted dolls to cancer patients, made from materials safe for skin that has become highly sensitised by chemotherapy and radiation, is a growing area of therapeutic support internationally. “For Faces of Cancer, the initiative reflects the organisation’s deeply human approach to walking alongside patients not just medically, but emotionally,” Ms. Phillip said.
Ms. Phillip also highlighted Faces of Cancer’s expanding patient advocacy work, through which the organisation provides dedicated support to cancer patients navigating the medical system — helping them understand their diagnoses, communicate with healthcare providers, and access the care and resources to which they are entitled. “This kind of systemic advocacy addresses a gap that statistics rarely capture: the profound disorientation and vulnerability that patients often experience within institutional healthcare settings, and the difference that a knowledgeable, compassionate advocate can make”, Ms. Phillip concluded.
Walk For the Cure 2025 surpassed its $80,000 fundraising target through contributions from corporate sponsors, CIBC Caribbean staff, and members of the public across Saint Lucia. Special recognition was extended to Windjammer Landing Resort and Residences, singled out as one of the most generous partners of the 2025 campaign, both for hosting the flagship fundraising dinner and for the resort team’s enthusiastic participation on walk day.
Addressing guests at the ceremony, CIBC Caribbean Country Manager Nigel Ollivierre reflected on fourteen years of the initiative and issued a rallying call for the community’s continued commitment. “Cancer does not discriminate,” he noted. “None of us can say with certainty that we, or someone we love, will not one day receive that diagnosis. That is precisely why Walk For the Cure must remain a national commitment — a must-do that Saint Lucia puts on its calendar every October without fail.”
Mr. Ollivierre also extended an open invitation to sponsors, community organisations, and members of the public to contribute fresh ideas for keeping the initiative relevant and impactful as it enters its fifteenth year. CIBC Caribbean reaffirmed its commitment to making Walk For the Cure 2026 the most successful edition yet, and called on corporate Saint Lucia and the wider community to register their participation and support early.
Since its inception in 2012, Walk For The Cure has raised close to USD$4 million across CIBC Caribbean’s regional footprint, making it one of the Caribbean’s largest cancer fundraising and awareness initiatives.