Months after Canadian rock legends The Tragically Hip ended their farewell tour, frontman Gord Downie, and his courage in the face of a brain cancer diagnosis, continue to inspire fans.
Over the past two days those fans continued to demonstrate their passion for the singer, and his cause, when they completely bought out a set of unique charity keychains with a very special connection to Downie.
Limited edition keychains from Izzy Camilleri! Own a piece of @gorddownie iconic suits. https://t.co/beIzD2ABkG @tthbaker pls RT @Sunnybrook pic.twitter.com/DMuLHdApiG
— courageforgord (@courageforgord) December 16, 2016
During the Hip’s Man Machine Poem farewell tour Downie sported a series of flashy metallic suits on stage. The shiny leather outfits were designed by Canadian fashion designer Izzy Camilleri.
Camilleri said she created the custom suits to be “worthy of Gord's energetic and passionate performance.” Each of the seven suits was also named after someone who had helped Downy prepare for the tour, like his late father, bandmates and assistants.
After the Hip’s tour wrapped up Camilleri took the leather she had leftover from creating Downie's suits and turned it into 1,000 unique keychains shaped like guitars.
Each chain is stenciled with #courageforgord, numbered, and displays the name of the suit is came from.
Courage For Gord is a charity organization started by a group of fans inspired by Downie’s “courage in the face of adversity.”
The group raises money for several foundations dedicated to advancing brain cancer research.
After Courage For Gord told the story of the keychains yesterday fans flocked to the web to support their efforts. In a show of overwhelming support, every one of them was sold in just over a day.
All the proceeds from the sales will be given to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
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