The Sunnybrook Foundation, which is collecting donations for the Gord Downie Fund, won't tally how much has been raised until the tour's completion Aug. 'I'm really thankful to all of the folks from all of the cities on the tour so far that have held fundraising events outside the venues - you know, house parties, all kinds of things have been going on,' said Perry, likening the response to 2014's 'Ice Bucket Challenge' in aid of ALS research. As such, raising funds for research into these and other brain tumours can be challenging compared to more common cancers.Д«ut Downie's decision to go public with his diagnosis and the Tragically Hip's subsequent launch of its tour has brought brain cancer into the limelight and set the stage for an outpouring of badly needed donations. Still, there's no getting around the fact that glioblastomas, which affect an estimated four to six in every 100,000 Canadians, are notoriously difficult to treat and have a grim prognosis. 'His last MRI (in late May) was fantastic from my point of view, and we'll get together after the Kingston show, after he's had a chance to rest a little bit, and we'll sit down and see where we're going from there.' Perry won't say much about his patient's current health status, except that Downie is not currently receiving any treatment. And I think given the potential worries about Gord's memory or about word-finding, he's just been so brave. 'They have a carefully constructed set list that changes every night. They're not going out there and singing their album 'Yer Favourites' or their 20 greatest hits. The one thing they did not do was to take the easy road on this. 'They have just gotten better with each show, more confident. Sporting a Tragically Hip cap and accompanied by his wife and two youngest children, Perry belted out the lyrics by heart.ДЄnd after seeing Downie and his bandmates perform on their 'Man Machine Poem' tour, he's even more in awe of the Hip. The day before, Perry had joined about 120 Sunnybrook staffers who gathered on the hospital grounds to sing the band's song 'Courage' for a YouTube video to thank those who have donated money toward the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research. 'I was and I'm exactly the right vintage to be born and raised on Hip music,' Perry, 52, said Wednesday before heading down to the Air Canada Centre for Downie's pre-show checkup and the first of the group's three Toronto concerts. Long before the singer-songwriter became his patient, the physician was a fan of the iconic Canadian band. 'When I wondered if he would have the stamina and not get too tired and run into problems, I never imagined him leaping around in a pink leather suit with a feathered cap,' Perry said.

There were concerns that Downie - known for his energetic, often frenetic, stage presence - might not have the mental or physical endurance for the four-week, cross-Canada tour after going through surgery and six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy for his cancer, a relatively rare but aggressive and invasive tumour called a glioblastoma. Good plans sometimes need to be made and hopefully never used, and so far that's been the case.' And thank goodness nothing has transpired. 'That was the original plan and it's become less and less necessary, but I make myself available at the venue pre-show,' said Perry, a neuro-oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

James Perry is there as a member of a medical team to make sure the group's 52-year-old frontman is well enough to perform, given his diagnosis of an incurable brain tumour that was announced in May. TORONTO - Gord Downie's chief oncologist has been to all but one of the Tragically Hip's farewell concerts and plans to attend each of the band's remaining shows, including the final stop on the tour in Kingston, Ont.

Downie 4 will damage your computer