To Liesel with love

Michael Schade Devoted to Leukemia Research

Michael Schade Donates Proceeds of Die schöne Müllerin Recording to the McMaster University Centre for Neurological Disorders

Michael Schade's much-anticipated recording of Schubert's great song cycle Die schöne Müllerin with pianist Malcolm Martineau is now available on CBC Records (June 2005). Proceeds from the recording will be donated by Michael to the McMaster University Centre for Neurological Disorders.

For more information on the CD -- including reviews -- check out the Die schöne Müllerin page of this website.

To purchase Die schöne Müllerin on-line please visit www.cbcrecords.ca

Michael Schade Speaks for Leukemia Research

On Christmas Eve 1999, my mother, Liesel Schade collapsed after, quite literally, giving out the last of the Christmas gifts to her grandchildren. On the eve of the new Millennium she was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), a blood disorder for which, until recently, the survival rate was low. She underwent intensive chemotherapy for three months under the guidance of an expert medical team, and while she achieved remission, she was unfortunately later also diagnosed with a complicating blood disease called "Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). My mother was treated at the McMaster University Hospital in Hamilton, one of only two hospitals in Southern Ontario that can help to fight blood cancers and other such disorders.

In the spring of 2001, the same doctors performed a cutting-edge "stem cell transplant" on her. She is now healthy, still giving out Christmas presents to her growing number of grandchildren, and will be with us on March 6 to celebrate this marvellous fundraising event.

It was during my mother's treatment that I developed the highest regard and respect for the medical team at McMaster's Blood Disorder Clinic. I decided to assist their continued research and work by offering my help at benefit concerts. In September 2001, I organized my first fundraising concert - "Michael Schade and Friends Sing for Leukemia Research". The concert raised $60,000, an amount which was equalled by a private donor (totalling $120,000). This allowed McMaster to purchase a Real Time Image Analysis Station with Florescent Microscope, a highly specialized piece of equipment used in the diagnosis and treatment of blood disorders.

Since that time, I have participated in a number of fundraising events, including an international celebrity golf tournament in Salzburg this past summer, raising over 10,000 Euros, for the Jos� Carreras Foundation. Jos� Carreras underwent a bone marrow transplant for leukemia when the procedure was still experimental. He has since raised millions of dollars to aid in the research of improved treatment of blood disorders.

 

September 2001 Fundraiser for Leukemia Research (Oakville, ON)