A message from Mary-Anne Frith RVH Keep Life Wild Campaign Chair:
It’s no secret that we live in one of the most beautiful parts of the province. We have breathtaking landscapes, pristine lakes, and some of the best hiking, cycling and fishing our country has to offer.
I’m sure your family has relied on RVH for world-class care over the years. I know mine certainly has. But the reason I decided to get involved with the Keep Life Wild campaign is because my family has also experienced the stress, expense and loss that occurs when you can’t get specialized care close to home.
Our family began a journey that we could never have imagined 20 years ago. My husband’s younger daughter was diagnosed with cancer. This was before RVH had the cancer centre which meant we spent countless hours driving back and forth between Barrie and Toronto for Sarah’s care and treatments.
Sarah lost her battle with cancer 12 years ago. She spent too many hours travelling the highway and not enough time doing the things she loved
Having exceptional specialized care close to home can make all the difference. Sarah missed out on so much because of the time she spent travelling for medical care. It was really hard on her to be away from the support of her siblings, grandparents and friends.
Our entire family was affected by the impact of travel for care. Our other kids often didn’t have their parents at soccer games, dance recitals and school events.
That’s why I volunteer my time to help make RVH’s expansion plans a reality. With your support, we will expand the current health centre in Barrie and build a whole new hospital in Innisfil.
The expansion couldn’t come at a better time. Our region is one of the fastest growing in the province, and it’s expected to double in the next 20 years. It’s not surprising, given how beautiful Simcoe Muskoka is! But we must be prepared to meet the growing demands on our healthcare system, and an expanded RVH will help ensure that everyone who lives or relocates here has access to the exceptional, compassionate care we all deserve.
In the report below, you’ll read about more ways your generosity is having an impact. You’ll be inspired by Dianne, a volunteer who credits RVH’s advanced technology with saving her life after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. You’ll read the touching story behind why our Cancer Centre has a brand-new name. And you’ll meet Patricia, who was one of the first patients to use the new donor-funded PET-CT scan to monitor her breast cancer.
This PET-CT scan is the first and only one of its kind between Newmarket and Sudbury. It allows us to offer the highest level of diagnosis and follow-up of more than 1000 cancer patients a year. That’s 1000 people who no longer have to face the stress and exhaustion of travelling outside our region for this vital test.
Thank you again for everything you’re doing to help keep life wild for everyone in Simcoe Muskoka. Your gifts ensure RVH has the space, technology and equipment to continue providing world-class specialized care to your family and loved ones right here, close to home.
Full-Circle Care
Dianne Mehaffey knows what it’s like to have good people in your corner when you need it most.
In 2013, she got the shock of her life: she was diagnosed with non Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Dianne travelled from her home in Burk’s Falls to begin
chemotherapy at the Hudson Regional Cancer Centre (HRCC) formally known as the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre. She was moved by the kindness of RVH staff and dedicated volunteers, who talked her through each procedure and made her feel comfortable during her two-week hospital stay.
“There was one volunteer who sat in the chair in my room, keeping me company and telling me stories… She made me feel important. It was just beautiful.”
Today, Dianne is cancer-free, and grateful for the exceptional care she received at RVH. She was inspired to give back, so she became a volunteer at the HRCC welcome desk.
Dianne is living proof that having access to the latest diagnostic technology and equipment is essential. Her oncologist explained that the treatments that saved her life weren’t available just five years earlier.
“If I were diagnosed even five years earlier, I might have been toast. The specialized treatments I was having were not available then.”
RVH Foundation’s Keep Life Wild campaign is vital to offering our region more specialized care.
Be a donor and help us save more lives. You give patients like Dianne the chance to live fully, so she can give back to the care providers that were there for her when she needed it.
Donor support boosts cancer care in Simcoe Muskoka
David Hudson’s sister Lara was a vibrant young woman – a wife and mom who loved her family, her friends, and her community of Bradford. In 2004, she was diagnosed with angiosarcoma, a rare form of cancer.
Lara had to travel to Toronto for her treatments. It broke David’s heart to think that the countless hours spent on the highway could have been precious time Lara spent living life at home with her loved ones.
After she passed, David and his wife Catherine wanted to see other cancer patients and their families given more time together during treatment. They began fundraising to support local cancer care in hopes that one day, everyone will have access to advanced, world-class treatment close to home.
David and Catherine have pledged an incredible $10 million to the RVH Keep Life Wild campaign. In honour of their landmark gift, the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre has been officially renamed the David and Catherine Hudson Regional Cancer Centre (HRCC).
David and Catherine’s generosity will provide support to everyone touched by cancer in our region for generations to come.
Every gift, no matter the size, has a tangible impact on people right here in our community. Please support RVH’s Keep Life Wild campaign, and give more patients and families the chance recover and heal together, closer to home.
The best care for our community, in our own backyard
Patricia Hammond’s heart sank when a routine mammogram showed something suspicious.
A biopsy confirmed she had breast cancer. Patricia focused on the next steps: a mastectomy and then a PET-CT scan.
A PET-CT scanner is a state-of-the art piece of imaging technology. Results from these scans are used to diagnosis and determine the most effective treatment plan for people being treated for cancer.
Patricia was told she might have to travel from her home in Ivy, a small hamlet just west of Barrie, to Mississauga for the scan. As she was steeling herself for the day-long trip, Patricia got welcome news: she would be able to have her PET-CT right here at RVH. In fact, she was the fifth-ever patient to undergo the scan at our health centre!
That’s the impact of your support. Gifts from caring donors like you bring the latest, highly-specialized technology like PET-CT machines closer to home.
Thanks to you, Patricia had her scan and was back resting at home within hours. She continues to be monitored right here at RVH, where PET-CT scans can detect any changes to the disease in her body.
By donating to RVH today, you can offer your loved ones and neighbours the comfort of staying close to home for world-class care.
How you’re supporting early diagnosis and treatment
Because of donors like you, RVH puts the best technology and tools into action to support patient care.
RVH’s new Positron Emission Tomography/ Computed Tomography (PET-CT) scanner — funded in part by generous donors — is an advanced dual imaging system that helps detect cancer cells and tumours in real time, before any other available test. This allows for early diagnosis and treatment, which then increases the chances of better medical outcomes.
Having the only PET-CT scanner between Sudbury and Newmarket means over 1,000 cancer patients from our region each year, can now stay close to their homes and loved ones while receiving the highest quality of care right here, at RVH.
It’s also what attracted radiologist and PET-CT lead Dr. Cory Ozimok to the RVH team: “As a radiology resident deciding my specialty, I learned that RVH was applying for a PET-CT scanner. It looked promising given the number of patients cared for at the regional cancer centre,” explains Dr. Ozimok. “Since there aren’t a lot of radiologists trained to read PET-CT in Ontario, I decided to train in nuclear medicine and come back here – to the community I grew up in, a community I already love – and be part of this new program at RVH.”
