Victoria - For Trev and Joyce Deeley, 21-year residents of Sidney, making a donation to the new Vancouver Island Cancer Centre is a very natural - and very personal - thing to do. The fact that it's a $1 million gift that will leave a lasting legacy to the residents of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands just makes them feel good.

It also gives them hope for the future.

"We decided a number of years ago to prepare a will," explained Joyce. In it, the couple decided, they would honour various charities.

But then the Deeleys decided to move their plans forward.

"You work all your life, save your money, and then what do you do with it?" Joyce said, "We know research is the only way to find the answers to cancer. It is the only hope."

"We decided to give one million dollars to the Vancouver Island Cancer Centre's Daring to Believe Campaign now," she said. "It's nice to do something while you're alive and able to share the feeling of giving.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest one time personal gift ever made to a health care facility on Vancouver Island," said campaign chair Alex Campbell of Thrifty Foods. "This incredible philanthropic donation will make an enormous difference to people here facing cancer. It also brings us one very big step closer to making our vision a reality - a vision to include on-site cancer research in the new cancer treatment centre."

The Deeleys are a remarkable couple. Joyce has ovarian cancer, which was diagnosed three years ago, and travels to the Vancouver Island Cancer Centre in Victoria daily for treatment. When she speaks of the staff and services she has received there, she is full of admiration and gratitude.

"The people at the Centre are wonderful," she says "They are always so caring, day in and day out."

She has also taken a good, hard look at what's around her, and this is when Joyce Deeley's fortitude becomes clear. When she speaks of the Cancer Centre in Victoria, she doesn't complain about her own comfort - she notices the crowded and cramped conditions under which the staff, nurses and doctors must now work.

"Until you're exposed to cancer, you don't see this," she said. "Now it's part of us, and we wanted to do something. I am very happy to see the new Centre being built - it is so desperately needed."

The Deeleys are no strangers to the spotlight. Trev Deeley, who started in the motorcycle business in 1935, was recently inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and the American Motorcycle Association Hall of Fame for his success in motorcycle racing. He is still connected with the Harley Davidson Distributor for Canada.

Trev's achievements are legendary: he holds the record in the Pacific Northwest for 52 first place finishes in motorcycle racing; he started the Vancouver Police Department's Motorcycle Drill team; and he personally built one of the world's finest motorcycle museums, located in Richmond.

It must be this verve that allowed Trev and Joyce Deeley to plunge into the fight against cancer.

"We thought a donation of $1 million would draw attention to the fact that we must find the answers, and we must support this cause," Trev said. "It had to be a significant amount."

"There is no other way," Joyce says firmly. "Our hope is that this gift will be a good impetus for others to come forward to show their support, too."

It looks as though Trev and Joyce Deeley have accomplished another first place finish. This time, it will be all of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands who will wave them over the finish line.

For more information about making a donation to the Vancouver Island Cancer Centre, please contact: Robin Ashforth at 250-370-8811.

Media contact: Camille Cuthill, Campaign Director Tel: 250-370-8810 Fax: 250-370-8608