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By Jaryn Vecchio

Much Needed Advocacy

P.A. & area leading way on brain injury awareness says Canadian Royal Purple President

Jan 12, 2023 | 2:00 PM

The Prince Albert area is being credited by a national organization for leading the way in brain injury awareness.

Sandi Lougheed, the president of Canadian Royal Purple, took time this past weekend to meet with people in the region who’ve been going above and beyond to help end preventable, life-changing injuries.

She told paNOW their advocacy has been ongoing for around eight years and in that short amount of time, they’ve had a major impact.

“They made the decision to reach out. It seemed like such a small spark back then but because of them reaching out… we’ve raised almost $200,000.”

All the funds, which have been collected across the province, have been given to the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association.

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Along with advocacy and fundraising, Lougheed added the people in the Prince Albert area are in the process of creating a home for brain-injured youth. The hope is to have it open sometime in 2024.

Representatives from the Prince Albert women’s shelter stand with members from the Prince Albert and Shellbrook Royal Purple lodges in October 2022. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Meanwhile, the term brain injury encompasses a wide range of illnesses, injuries, and traumas.

The most common and well-known are concussions. When Lougheed gets the chance to speak with today’s younger generation, this is usually what gets the most attention.

“I tell them there’s no store where you can buy a new brain, the brain is the only organ in the body that we can’t transplant,” she said. “We only have one and we need to look after it.”

When including everything from concussions to strokes, it’s estimated that someone in Canada will suffer from a brain injury every three and a half minutes. Lougheed believes more advocacy like that coming from the Prince Albert area is needed to fix this stat.

“If we reduce that across Canada to five minutes or reduce the statistics of how many kids die due to brain injuries… that is so meaningful.”

Starting on Mar 1^st, Canadian Royal Purple lodges across Saskatchewan will once again begin fundraising for the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association. More information, including how people can donate, will be released closer to the date.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow