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Maple Ridge woman’s memorial fund helping mothers

Kitty Carr fund aims to reduce maternal mortality
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A fund has been started in Memory of Kitty Carr, seen here on her wedding day, and with husband Paul Carr. (Special to The News)

A Maple Ridge family’s efforts to reduce the number of women dying in childbirth are getting results.

The Kitty Carr Fund was established to try and stop maternal mortality in Canada. She is a mother who died in 1994, after giving birth to her daughter.

Kitty would be a senior citizen today, if she had not passed away.

Her husband Paul, who lived in Maple Ridge for 25 years but has moved to Kelowna, recently donated $100,000 to establish the Kitty Carr Fund, through the Canadian Foundation of Women’s Health. The fund supports research and initiatives focused on prevention of maternal mortality in Canada.

READ ALSO: Tragedy for Maple Ridge family inspires new fund

In the past year, Paul has continued his efforts.

On Nov. 2, with the Canadian Foundation Women’s Health, he launched the 2022 Kitty Carr Fund Drive, targeting 100 leading executives of well known corporations in Canada, to make them aware of the issue, and challenge them to support improving women’s health.

To date, the fund has raised $250,000. Anyone can donated online at www.cfwh.org/kittycarr

Carr also attended the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada Conference (SOGC) in Quebec City in June 2022, to witness the launch of their new On-Line Toolkit Registry Program. It is now live in six provinces, and to be rolled out soon in every province and territory in Canada.

“This is a big deal, and will have a profound impact over the next few years to help reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in Canada, and save mothers’ and infants’ lives,” Carr said.

He also presented the inaugural Kitty Carr Research Grant of $10,000 to Dr. Isabelle Malhame, associate professor of medicine at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, and her team of 14 researchers for their feasibility study on establishing a Canadian obstetrics surveillance system (CANOSS) for severe maternal morbidity.

The incidence rate of maternal morbidity (near misses) is about 85 times that of maternal mortality, he explained. Many of the mothers are left with lifelong debilitating illnesses.

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Neil Corbett

About the Author: Neil Corbett

I have been a journalist for more than 30 years, the past decade with the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
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