Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Dr. Dave Williams visits patients at The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the MUHC
Sending My Dreams to Space with Dr. Dave
The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the MUHC is honoured to welcome Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dr. Dave Williams. Dr. Williams will visit the hospital Thursday to share stories about his latest space mission with our children and staff and to tour the hospital to meet one-on-one with some of the children and teens under our care.
| WHEN: | Thursday, September 27, 2007 |
| Dr. Williams will talk and take questions between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. The tour of the hospital will start around 3 p.m. | |
| WHERE: | The Montreal Children’s Hospital 2300 Tupper Street 8C Terrace (in the event of rain, signs indicating alternate location will be posted at main entrance) |
During his recent space voyage, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dr. Dave Williams brought with him a very special and poignant payload. Dr. Williams was entrusted with 325 wishes from hospitalized children from across Canada, including 50 wishes from children and teens who received care at The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the MUHC. The messages of hope from children facing health challenges were part of the Sending My Dreams to Space with Dr. Dave project.
“I wanted to bring hope to these children. When you are sick you tend to focus almost exclusively on your illness and your treatment,” says Dr. Williams. “I wanted to give these kids a chance to look beyond their illness, a chance to look forward and dream about the future. It is very important to have dreams to strive towards. When kids can picture the future, it has a huge impact on their psychological well being.”
The children’s wishes were brought into low-earth orbit to the stars where they could sparkle over the earth.
Dr. Williams blasted off from Cape Canaveral on August 8 aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. The goal of the 13-day mission was to build and maintain the International Space Station. During the voyage, Dr. Williams performed three spacewalks spending 17 hours and 47 minutes outside the space station, a Canadian record.
Dr. Williams was born in 1954 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He attended high school in Beaconsfield, Quebec, and graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Science, Major in Biology (1976). He went on to obtain a Master of Science from the Physiology Department, and a Doctorate of Medicine and Master of Surgery from the Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, (1983).