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Parents Who Lost Children to CTE to Speak at Toronto Event Hosted by Football Kills

Football Kills
Tuesday at 9:40am ADT · June 16, 2026 2 min read

TORONTO, June 16, 2026 /CNW/ – Karen and Doug Zegal will be speaking in Toronto on Wednesday June 17th, alongside Anne and Bill Benedict. Both sets of parents have lost a son due to CTE and the mental health consequences of adolescent contact sports. Both couples have also become advocates for mental health awareness. 

Karen Zegal is the founder and president of the Patrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation, while Anne and Bill Benedict founded the One Last Goal initiative. 

The event is being hosted by Tony Whelan, creator of the website Footballkills. The name of the website comes from a 2013 article by the Canadian sportswriter Cathal Kelly. The article was about the PBS documentary Out of their League and the headline read, Football Kills but nobody really cares. “I refuse to believe the second part of that headline” says Whelan. “Why are schools organizing and encouraging a sport that kills? Why are we so slow to make the changes the new science demands?” 

The issue is not just football. As Dr. Bennet Omalu wrote in in the New 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… We have a 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. (Don’t Let Kids Play Football, Dec. 7, 2015) 

This is the billboard that went up in Toronto advertising the event. 

This is the billboard that went up in Toronto advertising the event. (CNW Group/Football Kills)

Event Details: 

  • Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2026
  • Time: 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST
  • Location: St. Francis Table, 1322 Queen St. W, Toronto
  • Livestream: YouTube @FootballKills 

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SOURCE Football Kills

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