Hamilton - CIBC announced yesterday a $500,000 donation to McMaster University to establish the CIBC Undergraduate Bursaries in Nursing for undergraduate students with a specific interest in breast cancer research and education.

CIBC’s donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Ontario Trust for Student Support, doubling the impact of the donation and raising the endowment to $1 million.

“At CIBC, we are passionate about helping to create a future without breast cancer by actively supporting breast cancer research, education and treatment,” said Gerry McCaughey, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are proud to provide funding for this bursary program that will allow deserving nursing students to delve deeper and achieve a greater understanding of breast cancer so that they will be better able to provide the treatment and care cancer patients need to help them cope with the ramifications of this disease.”

CIBC’s history of supporting the breast cancer cause dates back to 1992 with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. The Run has raised more than $170 million since its inception and CIBC and its employees have raised more than $15 million to help create a future without breast cancer. In the last five years, CIBC has committed more than $23 million to hospitals and research centres across Canada, including $5.5 million towards breast cancer treatment and research.

“McMaster has enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial relationship with CIBC over the years,” says Peter George, President of McMaster University. “We share a belief that education and research are our best weapons in the fight against cancer, and CIBC has been very generous in helping to fund various ventures to achieve this. CIBC’s offer to support bursaries for deserving students, especially at a time when the economic climate is particularly hard on students, makes the gift all the more appreciated.”

Previous CIBC gifts to McMaster range from library construction to medical research, and from the McMaster University Student Centre to an endowed chair in the DeGroote School of Business. In 2006, the bank established the CIBC Graduate Bursary in Breast Cancer and the CIBC Medical Bursary in Breast Cancer.

In addition to a shared vision, McMaster and CIBC share a founder: Senator William McMaster was the founding president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce from 1867 to his death in 1887, the year he also founded the university that bears his name.

McMaster University, one of four Canadian universities listed among the Top 100 universities in the world, is committed to discovery and learning in teaching, research and scholarship. It has a student population of 23,000 and more than 135,000 alumni in 128 countries.