In November of 2007, the story of Christopher (Chris) Knox caught the hearts and minds of many Saskatchewan residents, as the young Weyburn-born man who battled cancer was enabled to go to the Grey Cup, which the Saskatchewan Roughriders claimed from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Chris later lost his battle with cancer on December 7, 2007, and now his memory will live on as the Chris Knox Foundation will be officially announced in Regina on Thursday, June 12.

Christopher Aaron Knox was born Sept. 14, 1983 in Weyburn. He attended Ruth Pawson School and Robert Usher in Regina. He was the son of Sharla and Kim Folk of Regina and Ron Knox of Weyburn. Chris was predeceased by his 20-year old brother Dustin, who was killed in a car accident in 2001.

"The Foundation had its genesis in the initial efforts to send Chris to the Grey Cup in November of last year," explained Kelly Schermann, president of the Chris Knox Foundation. "After being able to send Chris and ten other young cancer patients to that game, we had a modest amount left over and decided to contact the family if we could create a legacy foundation in Chris's name."

"Basically our mandate is to provide opportunities for young cancer patients throughout the province to attend both sport and cultural events," explained Schermann. "We are starting with the Roughriders, but will be building in our successes and extending it beyond Rider games to other venues."

"The Chris Knox Foundation will be set up as a break from cancer treatment for any cancer patient in Saskatchewan who is younger than the age of 30," explained Kim Folk. "It will act as a fill-in for the gaps of assistance provided by McDonald's House and the Make A Wish Foundation, where we saw the need for a foundation to act on behalf of patients to give them a nice little memory."

The announcement will be taking place at Mosaic Stadium's Taylor Field in Regina on Thursday, June 12, with several dignitaries and Roughrider team members on hand to speak and lend their support. To officially kick off the Foundation, a logo and a website will be unveiled, as well as a display of the four Roughrider season tickets the Chris Knox Foundation will be able to donate to a child in need this season.

"An extra bonus is that we heard from Mayor Pat Fiacco of Regina that he will be donating two of the four tickets he won from the Mayor of Winnipeg to the Foundation," said Kim Folk. "This will help the Foundation provide more opportunities to cancer patients who want to go out and enjoy a Rider's game during the season."

The Foundation will do a lot more than just provide tickets to sports games, as it also provides tickets to fine arts and music performances. "Whatever special events we can give to the patient to brighten their life, we will do what we can to provide them that break from the treatments," said Kim Folk. "In this way we hope we can help the family to 'Never Stop Dreaming', and to keep hoping for a bright future."

'Never Stop Dreaming' is the tagline for the Chris Knox Foundation. The paperwork for the Foundation to become a licensed charity has begun, with Kim Folk saying it can take up to a year to complete. Support for the foundation has already begun as well, with the Foundation board starting to plan for fundraisers and other efforts to keep the Foundation running.

"Once we receive our charity license and are able to issue tax receipts, we will then look at organizing charity events to help raise funds for the Foundation so that in turn we can provide many opportunities to the youth who need this service," said Schermann. "We will also be looking at creating liaisons with the patients at the Regina and Saskatoon cancer clinics, so that we can find out what the needs of those patients are and start looking at requests. Every person's story and request is unique, and we will do our best to help as many as we can."

"We are fortunate to have a few well-connected people who sit on our board who will help us get organized and get the Foundation running," said Schermann. "There was a lot of good will that has continued since the initial story of Chris Knox back in November, as it touched the lives of a lot of people and continues to touch the lives of people who know someone who is fighting cancer."

Chris's battle with cancer started in June of 2006, when Chris had begun seeing a doctor on a frequent basis because of swelling of the lymph nodes in his groin area. After receiving antibiotics several times, his mother Sharla took Chris to her own doctor to get blood tests in August of 2006. They did blood tests and discovered his white blood cells were low, but his red cells were all right. The day after his blood work, Chris had to be taken to the Pasqua emergency because of the pain in his leg and the doctors recommended removing his lymph nodes.

Sharla and Chris were told that he had Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of cancer. It was then that the family began their journey learning to live with cancer. Chris had to endure bone marrow extraction, constant monitoring, several tests and chemotherapy. After three weeks of intense treatment, Chris's bone marrow was once again tested. The family was given the news that Chris was considered a "rapid responder" and could advance on to the second stage of treatment.

The Alan Blair Pediatrics cancer clinic for treatment soon became Chris's second home, where he met several kids younger than himself going through similar treatment. He was once quoted, "I can't sit here and feel sorry for myself, I have had it pretty good".

Then an extraordinary thing occurred in the middle of October. Chris was informed that he had been misdiagnosed; he did not have leukemia but he had Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, stage four of cancer that decreased his rate of survival to ten per cent. Chris continued with his treatment and enjoyed life as best he could. He responded very well to the treatments and his counts were always good.

In the latter part of August of 2007, with only two major treatments remaining, Chris began having seizures. Chris's cancer had traveled to his brain leaving five lesions positioned in different sections of his brain and was inoperable. Chemotherapy treatment was immediately discontinued and radiation begun.

As a result of no chemotherapy, the cancer started to spread rapidly throughout Chris's body. Chris lived the last four months of his life embracing life to the fullest, spending time with his family and loved ones, attending Rider games when he could and passing on the message of how cancer had affected his life and what he had seen and experienced in the Alan Blair Pediatrics cancer clinic.

Visit www.chrisknoxfoundation.ca for more details on Chris's story or the Chris Knox Foundation.