{"id":740561,"date":"2026-06-16T13:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740561\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T13:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:31:11","slug":"parents-who-lost-children-to-cte-to-speak-at-toronto-event-hosted-by-football-kills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740561\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents Who Lost Children to CTE to Speak at Toronto Event Hosted by Football Kills"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO, June 16, 2026 \/CNW\/ – Karen and Doug\u00a0Zegal will be speaking in Toronto on Wednesday June 17th, alongside Anne and Bill Benedict.\u202fBoth sets of parents have lost\u00a0a son\u00a0due to CTE and the mental health consequences of adolescent contact sports. Both couples have also become advocates for mental health\u00a0awareness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karen Zegal is the founder and president of the\u202fPatrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation<\/a>, while Anne and Bill\u202fBenedict founded the\u202fOne Last Goal<\/a>\u202finitiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the billboard that went up in Toronto advertising the event. (CNW Group\/Football Kills)<\/p>\n

The event is being hosted by Tony Whelan,\u00a0creator of\u00a0the website\u00a0Footballkills<\/a>.\u00a0The name of the website comes from a\u00a02013 article\u00a0by\u00a0the Canadian\u00a0sportswriter\u00a0Cathal Kelly. The\u00a0article was about the PBS documentary\u00a0Out of their League\u00a0and the\u00a0headline read,\u00a0Football Kills but nobody really cares.\u00a0“I refuse to believe the second part of that headline” says Whelan. “Why are\u00a0schools\u00a0organizing and encouraging a sport that kills? Why are we so slow to\u00a0make the changes the new science demands?”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The issue is not just football. As Dr. Bennet Omalu wrote in in the\u00a0New York Times: “Over the past two decades it has become clear that repetitive blows to the head in high-impact contact sports like football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts and boxing place athletes at risk of permanent brain damage\u2026\u00a0We\u00a0have\u00a0a legal age for drinking alcohol; for joining the military; for voting; for smoking; for driving; and for consenting to have sex. We must have the same when it comes to protecting the organ that defines who we are as human beings.\u00a0(Don’t\u00a0Let Kids Play Football,\u00a0Dec. 7, 2015)\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is the billboard that went up in Toronto advertising the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Event Details:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Date:\u202fWednesday, June 17, 2026
\n Time:\u202f7:00 p.m. \u2013 8:00 p.m. EST
\n Location:\u202fSt. Francis Table, 1322 Queen St. W, Toronto
\n Livestream:\u202fYouTube\u202f@FootballKills<\/a>\u00a0 <\/p>\n

SOURCE Football Kills<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Media Contacts: Primary Contact:\u202fTony Whelan, Organizer\u202fFootballKills.com,\u202fPhone: 647-453-3444, Email:\u202f[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>; Backup Contact:\u202fJames Collura, Communications Assistant Phone: 905-536-3163, Email:\u202f[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO, June 16, 2026 \/CNW\/ – Karen and Doug\u00a0Zegal will be speaking in Toronto on Wednesday June 17th,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,265818,3302],"class_list":["post-740561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football-kills","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}