In 1998, Barenaked Ladies keyboardist and guitarist Kevin Hearn started to have pains and experienced rapid weight loss. At the time, the band was working on their next studio album Stunt. As soon as it was finished, Hearn went in for a medical checkup and was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. While Hearn underwent a bone marrow transplant, the band was forced to go on without him on tour to promote the new album. Cancer treatments and transplant required that Hearn spend time in an isolation room. During that time, he began writing what became the album H-Wing, named after the hospital wing, H-Wing of the Princess Margaret Hospital, where he spent so much of his time fighting cancer. Reviewers describe this album as, "a testament to the strength of the human spirit, transcending desperate situations, and dealing with one's mortality. The songs are filled with hope, fear, love, confusion, gratitude, sadness, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of humor."

Today, Hearn is cancer-free and back with Barenaked Ladies. Hearn has moved on but has not forgotten the cancer research and cancer community that made it possible for his life today. He is the honorary spokesperson for the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control. Hearn and Barenaked Ladies band members play charity shows and participate in cancer fundraisers. In addition to touring and recording music with both Barenaked Ladies, and his solo band from H-Wing, Thin Buckle, he has been composing music for Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, a children's television show. In the heart of a cancer survivor is profound gratitude -- for all the little discoveries that were made, and for all the people who worked diligently to make them -- that led to the better treatments, that allowed for another day of life. Giving back is a given.