People call this hotline when they use drugs alone
An anonymous hotline has fielded over 20,000 calls from people across Canada who want support when using drugs alone, and as CBC's Jennifer La Grassa uncovers, the callers who rely on the National Overdose Response Service (NORS) are not who you might think they are.
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Run for Women brings out hundreds in support of mental health
Hundreds of Winnipeggers took to the streets Sunday morning to run in support of women's mental health. Shoppers Drug Mart Run for Women, the largest run and walk event dedicated to women's mental heath in the country, is held in multiple cities each year to raise funds and awareness. This was the second year that the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Manitoba and Winnipeg served as the charity partner, a non-profit organization promoting mental health and supporting recovery from mental illness. 'The funds going to women's mental health is so necessary here in Manitoba,' said Stephen Sutherland, fund development manager at CMHA Manitoba and Winnipeg. 'It just really, really excites us, but also gives us that hope, that with everything that we do collectively together, we're not only bringing the awareness for women's mental health, but we're providing access, and those funds are really, really critical for that.' Sutherland said that 1,327 people registered with the Winnipeg run, about 400 more than last year, with participants opting for a five- or 10-kilometre route near the Norwood Community Centre. Over $36,200 has been raised for CMHA Manitoba and Winnipeg as of Sunday afternoon, according to the event's website. Funds were also raised for wildfire evacuees, with leftover drinks for the runners being donated to evacuees and firefighters. According to the Run for Women's website, women experience depression and anxiety twice as often as men and have a higher likelihood to face barriers to service. The run has raised over $23 million nationwide for local programs since 2013. Donations can be made online.
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Hims & Hers Stock Is Soaring Again. But Should You Buy the Stock?
Many companies have failed to disrupt the complicated U.S. healthcare market. Hims & Hers (NYSE: HIMS) may finally be succeeding in cracking the code. The online telehealth platform focuses on circumventing the insurance market; its business of selling affordable medications directly to individuals is growing like a weed, and expects to generate $6.5 billion in revenue by 2030. It has had a tumultuous start to 2025, as Hims & Hers waged a battle to sell new weight loss medications on its online marketplace. Now, with momentum back on its side, the stock is up 118% year to date and 446% in the last five years. Let's take a deeper look at this company, and see whether you might want to buy Hims & Hers stock for your portfolio now. Disrupting the healthcare market Hims & Hers' model is simple. It has two separate web platforms -- Hims for men and Hers for women -- that sell medications and deliver to customers' front doors. It began with sexual health, but has moved into dermatology, hair loss, mental health, and now weight loss medications. A key to its success has been avoiding the insurance market with products that don't break the bank. Customers loathe dealing with health insurers in the United States, and sometimes would rather not use insurance at all. Plus, some of these products aren't covered by insurance. This strategy has helped the company close in on over $2 billion in projected revenue in 2025. To keep up this impressive growth, Hims & Hers wants to offer weight loss medications, which have been a blockbuster set of drugs for the pharmaceutical market. For a while the popularity of these drugs, such as Novo Nordisk 's Wegovy, left them in short supply; that allowed third parties such as Hims & Hers to produce them as a compounding pharmacy and sell them at much cheaper prices. This ended up generating $200 million of Hims & Hers' $1.4 billion in 2024 revenue. But with the shortage of Wegovy over and the compounding pharmacy exception ended, the company's weight-loss business was at a major turning point. Luckily, at the end of April Hims & Hers announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk that seems to resolve this issue: It gives Hims & Hers the ability to sell Wegovy directly on its platform. Hims & Hers is not an exclusive supplier of the drug -- or any drugs on its marketplaces, to be fair -- but it hopes to use its subscription business model, marketing expertise, and simplified user proposition to drive sales for Novo Nordisk in the huge obesity-care market. Going abroad and personalization Besides weight loss drugs, Hims & Hers has more ambitions to reach its goal of $6.5 billion in revenue by 2030. Just recently, the company announced its intent to acquire European competitor Zava so it could expand its telehealth service to Europe. The acquisition will add a platform with 1.3 million active customers in the U.K., Germany, France, and Ireland. It makes sense that Hims & Hers can supercharge growth for the platform with its plethora of medications offered to customers, keen marketing skills, and subscription-based selling model. Over the long run, Hims & Hers aims to make healthcare for its customers more personalized. This includes unique drug combinations, its own outsourcing facility, and at-home testing capabilities. Details remain sparse, but the vision is clear: disrupting more and more of the trillions of dollars spent on healthcare by building a business that people actually enjoy interacting with. This is why 2.4 million active customers use Hims & Hers today. HIMS Gross Profit Margin data by YCharts. Should you buy Hims & Hers stock? A revenue goal of $6.5 billion seems well within reach by 2030. Hims & Hers is only at 2.4 million active customers, and there are tens of millions of people in the United States alone who could start using or switch to one of its telehealth platforms. Add on the Zava acquisition in Europe, and the runway for growth gets even larger. The company has an impressive gross profit margin of 77%, which should lead to high levels of profitability at scale. On $6.5 billion in future revenue, it could very well post a net profit margin of over 20%, and achieve $1.5 billion in bottom-line profits and free cash flow. A 20% profit margin is easily achievable because of its high gross margins and the fact it currently spends 40% of revenue on marketing today, a figure that has come down over time and should come down even more as Hims & Hers keeps scaling. However, Hims & Hers has played fast and loose with laws and regulations in the past. It sold weight loss drugs when the legality of doing so was unclear, and although that dispute seems to have been resolved, management could easily start playing with fire again and burn its reputation as a trusted provider of medications. Otherwise, this looks like a fantastic growth stock that just doubled its addressable market with the Zava acquisition. Today, Hims & Hers has a market cap of $12.3 billion. You might think it's overvalued because of the stock's recent run-up in price, but the numbers show that patient investors could be rewarded by holding for the long term. A $12.3 billion market cap is only around 8 times my 2030 earnings estimate of $1.5 billion, which would be a dirt cheap price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for a fast-growing company compared to the current market cap. Most likely, the stock will be valued at a higher multiple than 8, meaning that the stock will be higher in five years. It doesn't come without risks, but if you're a growth investor, you might love Hims & Hers stock for its long-term potential. Should you invest $1,000 in Hims & Hers Health right now? Before you buy stock in Hims & Hers Health, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Hims & Hers Health wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to173%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Firefighters climb stairs at Brookfield Place to raise awareness and funds to fight cancer
One year ago Sunday, Tony Cianfarani, a member of the Stettler Fire Department, was in a bad place – in hospital, with Stage 3 colon cancer. 'I had very bad infection from the chemotherapy, and I was very close to actually dying,' Cianfarani said. 'I had a fever of 105. I spent three nights in the hospital, and I was on IV antibiotics.' Sunday, Cianfarani was one of 500 or so firefighters who climbed close to 1400 steps at Brookfield Place to raise funds to support Wellspring Alberta, an organization that helped him during his cancer treatment. 'I leaned on my firefighter family a lot when I was going through all this, and they were super supportive,' he said. 'I also leaned on Wellspring, and these programs are there for people like us, and definitely use them. 'Don't be scared to use them for sure.' Calgary fire chief Steve Dongworth was among the firefighters climbing stairs Sunday and said that cancer is a reality for firefighters. Steve Dongworth, June 8, 2025 Calgary fire chief Steve Dongworth participated in the Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge Sunday (Tyler Barrow, CTV Calgary) 'We have, you know, an ongoing toll of firefighters who pass away during due to occupational cancers.,' Dongworth said. 'We've had over 50 now in Calgary. It's unfortunately a number that keeps climbing. So there's a real recognition (that) the hazards of firefighting cause cause cancer, for sure.' Hundreds of firefighters from across Alberta, Canada and around the world joined the event Sunday to raise awareness and funds for Wellspring Alberta. And one of them was Cianfarani, one year to the day after nearly dying. 'it's just crazy that only a year later, I'm about to climb a skyscraper, and I'm in the best shape that I've been in in years since my 20s. 'So, yeah, it's just It's unbelievable that I'm actually here,' he added. 'And I don't think that the gravity of the of the events hit me yet, but I think when I get to the top of the stairs, it will. Dongworth took the challenge too –and finished the 57-floors of steps. 'It wasn't as much fun in the stairwell, but it's okay,' he said. 'It's a very great cause. It's great exercise. 'It's a great day.' All the support programs offered through Wellspring Alberta are free. For more about the Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge, go here. With files from CTV's Tyler Barrow
