(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Local Healthcare

Victoria Hospital Foundation preparing for 16th annual Give a Little Life Day in December

Oct 14, 2021 | 8:00 AM

The Victoria Hospital Foundation is continuing a yearly tradition with their 16^th annual Give a Little Life Day Radiothon this December.

On Dec. 3 Power99 FM, Beach Radio 101.5 FM and 900 CKBI will go live from Mann Northway GM from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to raise money to support urgent equipment needs in the Victoria Hospital.

Sherry Buckler, CEO of the Victoria Hospital Foundation said some of the new equipment they’ll be raising money for includes a new endoscopy tower, electrocardiogram machines, analyzers for the laboratory, a mammography machine, more equipment for the NICU, a CT scanner, over head surgical lights for trauma room, ventilators and computers for the intensive care unit and plenty other equipment needs.

“This years Give a Little Life Day is going to be a real celebration of the role our local hospital has played and continues to play in our community and in terms of all of our health care,” she told paNOW. “At the same time, we’re going to be raising money to support the most urgent equipment needs throughout the entire hospital. We have a lot of equipment needs this year and we have a lot of equipment needs every year, but we thought that this year would be a great year for people to reflect a little bit on a time that maybe they’ve maybe received care at the Victoria Hospital.”

Last year they raised over $590,000 for the new NICU and she said it was a special campaign. However, this year she explained they’re focusing on health care in general, more specifically every area of the hospital that has been impacted by COVID-19 and plays a role in saving and changing lives.

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“It’s really going to give us an opportunity this year during the radiothon to talk about all of those different areas,” she said.

Sometimes they don’t talk about those areas enough, she explained, and it’s those areas that come together that provide the level of health care in an emergency or if the public needs to be seen by a specific medical team in our home community.

They look forward to telling stories and hearing from people in the community, about grateful patients that have a story to share.

“We’ve never experienced such a health crisis in our history than we are right now and if you could see what I see every day in this hospital it would not only inspire you, but it would amaze you,” Buckler said. “The resilience in the staff and in the patients and the compassion and the skill that we witness every day in these hallways is absolutely a gift to our community.”

The hospital depends on the donors in the community and the foundation works with the community to make sure our hospital has what it needs. Buckler said they could never do that without the generosity of the residents of Prince Albert.

In a media release from the Victoria Hospital Foundation, Dr. James Harris described how he was admitted into the ICU on Dec. 20 at Victoria Hospital.

“My family was in a constant state of fear that I might not survive and around Christmas Day, they were told that they should come to say goodbye to me because there was concern that I would not live through the day,” he said. “I remained on a life support ventilator for 25 days. One of the main reasons our excellent staff can deliver the kind of care that I received is because of the gifts from people like you that help put the right tools in their hands. Tools such as monitors, pumps, beds, diagnostic equipment, and more.”

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Ian.Gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @IanGustafson12