Close to the Heart Campaign two thirds of way to goal
The fund-raising efforts by the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation to purchase a new digital mammography unit for the Cypress Regional Hospital took an important step forward last week.
The 11th annual Pharmasave Radiothon for Healthcare on October 31 and November 1 generated $155,832 for the equipment funding drive, which pulls the to the two thirds completed mark of the $350,000 needed for the new equipment.
During the two day fundraiser a series of major donations were made in support of the Close to the Heart Campaign. The campaign received $33,000 from Innovation Credit Union, a $10,000 donation from SWT, a $7,036 contribution from Pioneer Co-op through their two cents per litre fuel campaign on Oct. 17 to 23, $5,000 donations from both W.W. Smith and Pharmasave, a total of $4,473 was raised during a campaign fundraising evening hosted by Night Jar Diner Company, while the Scotiabank/ Dr. Noble Irwin Lobster Pot Golf Tournament on September 6 provided a $3,000 donation.
“We came into today not really knowing what to expect. There’s been some tough times in the Saskatchewan economy over the last year, and certainly in 2019 has been a really tough year agriculture, oil patch, and a lot of the drivers in our neighbourhood,” admitted Clay Thompson, Executive Director of the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation.
“So you come into something like this a little apprehensive. But you know people are people. They love to help…people are willing to come to the table. And some of our gifts were a little smaller than what they had maybe been in the past.
But I think we got quite a few more gifts than we’ve had in previous years. Maybe a little smaller but more of them. So it all works out to the same place at the end.”
A series of the sizeable donations to the campaign were again delivered by the business community. And Thompson points out that they have received numerous charitable requests over a busy year in the community.
“This has been a busy, busy city this year you know with the Hockey Day in February and then the Summer Games in August and now the Under 17 tournament going on now. It’s great for the city, don’t get me wrong and I’m all behind it. But it makes it a little difficult for our merchants. There’s a lot of people knocking on their doors.”
“The business community is really, really good to us. And I think that’s business owners taking the opportunity to give back to the people that support them.”
Thompson said the remainder of 2019 will be spent working on a Close to the Heart Campaign focus in Shaunavon, and continuing to encourage donations to complete raising the funds needed of the new mammography unit.
During both the Close to the Heart Campaign kickoff breakfast in June and last week’s radiothon, the stories of breast cancer survivors were highlighted to encourage donations. All of the survivors have stressed the importance of early detection in being important in fighting breast cancer.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to do since the first of June is make sure there’s more of those ladies are able to stand there and talk to us tomorrow,” Thompson said.
The existing digital mammography unit is a decade old and now 10 years behind the latest technology. The new equipment provides clearer diagnostic images which gives physicians a better chance to detect cancers sooner.
“We have care providers who are doing their absolute darndest to do what they can to find breast cancer early. We’ve got to give them the tools that’ll allow them to do that.”
Thompson, who will be retiring at the end of the year after serving at the helm of the foundation since January 1, 2010, was pleased with the success of their fundraising campaigns over the past decade.
“As I look back I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished. And I say we. It wasn’t us at the Foundation, it was the communities that we serve. The healthcare system identifies the needs, we just hook that need to people that are willing to support it. And its been great.”
Thompson recalls making a donation during the first campaign to fund a digital mammography unit, and he was pleased to be involved in the 11th anniversary edition of the radiothon to fund a new piece of technology.
He said a successful campaign will leave an important legacy for the 56,000 people who reside in the Southwest. Statistically, as one in eight women and one in 25 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in their lifetime, there stands the potential that 4,500 people in the region could experience breast cancer.
“We have an opportunity today, and until we’re done here, the opportunity to make sure that those people are there to talk to us at the end of their journey. And I just think that if we can continue to encourage people to participate, the new equipment will be here and there’s going to be a whole lot of happy endings at the end of the day.”