A nice day on the fairways has lead to some generous donations to the local hospital.
Rob Jeeves and Steve Wall from Drive for the Cure Foundation presented a cheque for $25,000 to the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation on Wednesday (Nov. 25).
The money will be used to purchase a pediatric colonoscope, which is used to navigate through more narrow or twisted segments of the bowel, allowing a full exam to be completed when it is too challenging to do so with a regular colonoscope.
“Currently, RMH’s colonoscope inventory is narrowly meeting the growing needs of our community,” said Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation communication coordinator Kate Campbell.
“Purchasing this pediatric colonoscope will allow for an increased number of procedures, ensuring we are meeting our patients’ needs.
“It also means the hospital can retire older equipment, decreasing downtime for repair. “
This is the second $25,000 gift of a four-year promise of $100,000 from the Drive for the Cure Foundation.
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Jeeves, who is the co-founder and chairman of the board for Drive for the Cure, said it has been difficult to raise money during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their primary fundraising event is a golf tournament, which had to be rescheduled and changed significantly this year.
“It’s been tough, but like everything, you roll with the punches,” Jeeves said.
“I think for year one of the pandemic, we did pretty good, but if this goes on to a full year two, it’ll be a lot harder.”
At this year’s tournament, which was held on Sept. 8 at Redwoods Golf Course in Langley, Jeeves said they raised approximately $185,000.
“We were off by over $55,000,” he said, “We’re normally collecting around $240,000.
“But luckily for us, we have a very large endowment of over a million dollars and that produces income for us annually, which we’re able to put into our donation pool each year,” he said.
“We were able to live up to our commitments this year, but we couldn’t do this year-after-year.”
Drive for the Cure Foundation has partnered with the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation since 2004.
Their donations of more than $300,000 have purchased many pieces of essential equipment directly related to the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer at Ridge Meadows Hospital – making a tremendous difference to the residents who use the facility.
The charity also partners with many hospitals and Fraser Valley cancer centres to aid in the treatment of people suffering from cancer or neurological illnesses.
ronan.p.odoherty@blackpress.ca
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