Teen raises $20,000 for children’s hospital

Fourteen-year-old Layla Dorko hoped to raise $4,000 for B.C. Children’s Hospital this Christmas as a way to say thank you for the lifesaving care she received last year.

With the help of a black-andwhite beef cow named Izzy, she’s raised five times that.

In April 2017, Dorko woke up with severe stomach pain.

On her second trip to the emergency room at Chilliwack Hospital, a CT scan showed an intestinal blockage. She was rushed to Vancouver for emergency surgery.

“It would have been life-threatening if I didn’t get the surgery,” she told Postmedia in November. “I couldn’t keep anything down.”

Dorko was in the hospital for 2½ weeks, during which time the doctors and nurses took care of her like she was “family.”

When the teen went home, she wanted to thank them.

As she went about her everyday life, helping out on her family’s beef farm in Chilliwack, she hit upon the perfect fundraiser.

In February, one of her family’s cows gave birth to a beautiful calf with a good genetic lineage. Dorko raised the heifer, named Izzy, training her to walk on a halter.

She hoped to sell the heifer for about $4,000 at a cattle auction at Abbotsford Stock Yards on Nov. 28 and donate the proceeds to the hospital.

Instead, Izzy was sold, and then resold, five times at the auction, raising $17,000.

In the days that followed, farmers continued to reach out to her family to donate. In all, Dorko has collected $20,000, with donations still coming in.

“It’s way more than I expected,” she said Saturday.

Dorko’s mom has been in touch with the hospital, and they plan to visit this week to present the money.

Dorko said despite the amount raised, it was still tough to say goodbye to Izzy.

“She’ll have a good life, but I’ve worked with her since she was a calf, so it was kind of hard,” she said.