Gilda’s Club is named in honour of Gilda Radner, an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, who reclaimed her gift of laughter and feeling of control when she joined with others who had cancer.  Her dream was to create a community for people with cancer, their friends and families, where they could engage in life-enriching activities, find inspiration and share the wisdom of experience while learning strategies for living with cancer.

In her best-selling book "It’s Always Something", Gilda wrote about her experiences while living with cancer.  As Gilda said, “Cancer is probably the most unfunny thing in the world, but I’m a comedienne and even cancer couldn’t stop me from seeing humour in what I went through”.  She spoke of establishing a support community in New York when she felt better and said, “There should be a thousand of them”.  This dream became a reality when Joanna Bull, Gilda Radner’s cancer psychotherapist, was approached by Gilda’s husband - Gene Wilder, as well as other friends of Gilda, to design a program and create a place where people living with cancer and their families and friends could come for free emotional and social support.

The first Gilda’s Club, including a training centre, opened its´ signature Red Door in New York City in 1995.  Since that time, additional clubhouses have opened in cities throughout North America including: Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Toronto, Fort  Lauderdale, Quad Cities, Hackensack, Rochester, Nashville, Grand Rapids and White Plains. Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka is the second clubhouse to open in Canada with other locations on the way. 

Although Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, her spirit lives on in every Gilda’s Club, where members join with other member “experts” in living with cancer to give and receive the benefits of love and laughter through the unique Gilda’s Club program.