Medway high school raises money for breast cancer with flag football tournament

A recreational and fitness leadership class from Medway High School hosted its fourth flag football tournament event called ‘Medway Power Tuff’ on Wednesday.

The goal of the event is to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society and raise awareness about breast cancer.

The school is hoping the tournament will encourage more women to participate in the sport.

“It's really important to bring awareness to breast cancer because it's a main cause that not everyone takes seriously," said Cassie Dukeshire who helped organize the event.

Female students participated hoping to raise awareness and funds for the Canadian Cancer Society, particularly in breast cancer research.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women and is the second leading cause of death from cancer in Canadian women.

“If it wasn't for this event I wouldn't be playing flag football today," said Sophia Simoni.

While the sport itself has typically been more male-dominated, this group of young women is trying to encourage more females to get into the game.

Their goal is to collect $4,800, and proceeds raised from the tournament will go towards supporting cancer research, programs and advocacy at the Canadian Cancer Society.

“After grade eight the amount of girls playing sports drops drastically, so we wanted to encourage everyone here at Medway to get active and have some fun,” said Sydney Brown, a grade 12 student at Medway.

“This day means a lot to us because we haven’t done it in so long and it's great to build team spirit and have a fun day empowering women to do sports like this," said Paige Robson.

You can find the link to their fundraiser on the Canadian Cancer Society website.