Marcie Beaulac and Katie LeComte embark on the entire 23 km Rotary Trail loop after raising $30,000 for the Summer Room; a space dedicated to helping families deal with fetal loss at the Victoria Hospital. (Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff)

By Jeff D’Andrea

For a good cause

P.A. medical student raises $30,000 for Summer Room at Victoria Hospital

May 15, 2021 | 1:32 PM

While on her obstetrics rotation at the Victoria Hospital, senior medical student Marcie Beaulac saw families dealing with fetal loss and stillbirth almost every time she was on call.

“That’s kind of when I realized how common and heartbreaking fetal loss is, and all of the staff feels the same way,” Beaulac said. “We wished that there was more that we could do for them in that time.”

Beaulac then came up with the Run the Rotary fundraiser, where she and colleagues would run the entirety of Prince Albert’s rotary trail to raise money to create a special room in the hospital to help families deal with fetal loss. The ‘Summer Room’ will be a renovated obstetrics room designed to be a private and peaceful space for grieving families, complete with a bathing station, cuddle cots, sofa bed, and other features.

Katie LeComte, who works in ICU at the hospital, helped Beaulac with fundraising and joined in on the run. She said it was a great opportunity to help give back to the hospital.

“I am absolutely amazed with the generosity of our friends, family and community members. The support people offered with their time and money toward this cause was heart warming and reminded us of the huge impact the Summer Room will have for those who might unfortunately have to use it,” said LeComte.

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As Beaulac headed to the 0 km marker of the trail behind the Alfred Jenkins Field House, she already raised just shy of $30,000 towards the cause, which was $10,000 more than her original goal. The previous evening, the Victoria Hospital Maternity nurses gave $15,000 after they raised funds themselves.

“It’s incredible,” Beaulac said of the support she’s received. “I think it’s a cause that often goes under-noticed and will go so far to supporting families that are dealing with the loss of their loved ones. We’re very excited.”

“The staff at the hospital have been fantastic in creating fundraisers of their own to support the cause and everyone has been sharing the page,” added Beaulac. “The support from the community has been more than I could have ever expected.”

Sherry Buckler, CEO of the Victoria Hospital Foundation, said Beaulac has rallied the whole hospital and much of the community into making the upgrades to this room happen.

“We were just really grateful to see somebody so young and so passionate about doing something that’s very critical to the families here in the hospital. We’re just really amazed, she’s inspired us all,” Buckler said.

The GoFundMe will be active until Sunday.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW