The day before, Perry had joined about 120 Sunnybrook staffers who gathered on the hospital grounds to sing the band's song "Courage" for a YouTube video to thank those who have donated money toward the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research. "I was and I'm exactly the right vintage to be born and raised on Hip music," Perry, 52, said Wednesday before heading down to the Air Canada Centre for Downie's pre-show checkup and the first of the group's three Toronto concerts. Credit: Trevor Meunier/Alamy Live News RM GHTXB3 Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It shows the memorial images lit up outside the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, ON. Long before the singer-songwriter became his patient, the physician was a fan of the iconic Canadian band. Gord Downie, 53, the front man of the Tragically Hip, passed away Oct. "When I wondered if he would have the stamina and not get too tired and run into problems, I never imagined him leaping around in a pink leather suit with a feathered cap," Perry said. There were concerns that Downie - known for his energetic, often frenetic, stage presence - might not have the mental or physical endurance for the four-week, cross-Canada tour after going through surgery and six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy for his cancer, a relatively rare but aggressive and invasive tumour called a glioblastoma. Good plans sometimes need to be made and hopefully never used, and so far that's been the case." And thank goodness nothing has transpired. "That was the original plan and it's become less and less necessary, but I make myself available at the venue pre-show," said Perry, a neuro-oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Brook McIlroy worked closely with CIBC, The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, Ellis Don and Govan Brown to create a Legacy space in the new CIBC Global. James Perry is there as a member of a medical team to make sure the group's 52-year-old frontman is well enough to perform, given his diagnosis of an incurable brain tumour that was announced in May. TORONTO - Gord Downie's chief oncologist has been to all but one of the Tragically Hip's farewell concerts and plans to attend each of the band's remaining shows, including the final stop on the tour in Kingston, Ont.
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