Hair by Fusion fundraiser supporting pediatric cancer care at PRHC in memory of Sofie Roberts

Sherri Wilfong, owner of Hair by Fusion, was inspired to host her “Blow-dry For a Cause” fundraiser in memory of Sofie Roberts, the daughter of her friend and former salon sales representative Brooke.

All proceeds from blow-dries and select sales at Hair by Fusion up until December 14th will be donated in support of pediatric cancer care at PRHC – inspired by the care Sofie received at the Health Centre.

Plus, those who make a $20 donation to the fundraiser – either online or in-store – will have their name entered to win one of four gift baskets filled with salon products (including $1,000 worth of products donated by Redken). 

The gift basket draw will take place at a special birthday party event on December 14th at 4pm, two days before what would have been Sofie’s tenth birthday.  

Thank you to the team at Hair by Fusion, and the Roberts family, for choosing to honour Sofie in this way. Donations raised will directly support an expanded, purpose-built pediatric cancer care space designed for the expert delivery of care close to home for vulnerable, young patients. 

Giving options during the Canada Post strike

During the postal strike, we want you to know that our commitment to reimagining health and care in our region remains strong. Through your support of the Campaign for PRHC, we’re transforming healthcare by fuelling innovation and bringing new, lifesaving services to our region.

There are other convenient ways to give today. Please consider making your donation…

  • Online: By clicking here or the “Donate Now” button at the top right hand of your screen
  • By phone: Call us at 705-876-5000
  • In person: Stop by our offices inside PRHC – Enter through the main doors, pass the cafeteria, and follow the hall to your left to office W4770 (4th floor, next to the main visitor elevators). We’re here Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 4:30pm.

If you’ve already given this season, thank you for empowering world-class care, close to home.

 

Celebrating National Philanthropy Day and all that donors make possible at PRHC

Today marks National Philanthropy Day, a time to honour those who demonstrate the spirit of giving and are helping us reimagine healthcare.    

Philanthropy fuels our mission at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation and inspires our dedicated team everyday. Because of your generous support, our colleagues at PRHC are able to expand services, create a healing environment for patients, and use state-of-the-art technology.    

Earlier this year we launched the $60 million Campaign for PRHC, our most ambitious initiative yet. With our growing population and the volume of patients on the rise, support is necessary so our hospital colleagues can continue to provide excellent patient care.   

“Many people are surprised to learn the government doesn’t fund hospital equipment,” said Lesley Heighway, PRHC Foundation President & CEO. “Your donations are vital to helping PRHC continue delivering world-class care with up-to-date technology.”   

Heighway announced that because of the community’s generous ongoing support, the Foundation has now achieved 82% of its campaign goal to date. “This is wonderful,” Heighway said. “Thanks to our donors who continue to rally around our hospital, the campaign has now reached over $49.5 million raised.”

PRHC is already seeing the benefits of this ambitious campaign. The hospital has introduced two new CT scanners and an additional MRI machine which are allowing doctors to provide patients with faster diagnoses, follow up and treatment. Your gifts have also helped bring new minimally invasive technology to the Operating Rooms and trauma equipment to the Emergency Department to support lifesaving care.  

Construction is underway on a secure, outdoor courtyard for patients in the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Currently, patients in the PICU have no access to the outside. This courtyard will give them a place to get fresh air, visit with family, and receive compassionate care. 

With your continued investment, we’ll also bring digital pathology to our region. This groundbreaking technology will allow the lab team at PRHC to get vital diagnostic information into the hands of doctors sooner. “With chronic diseases like cancer on the rise,” said Dr. Lynn Mikula, President & CEO of PRHC, “now is the time to make a difference. Your support can help fund innovative digital diagnostic tools, supporting early detection and lifesaving treatments.”    

“This is just the beginning,” Dr. Mikula added. “There’s so much more we have planned, and together, we’ll increase access to care for everyone while creating a top-notch environment doctors want to work in.” 

On National Philanthropy Day, we want to thank our community of supporters who champion healthcare everyday. Together, we can continue reimagining health and care, for a brighter and healthier future.   

Holiday urns in support of patient care at PRHC

This holiday season, why not buy something that benefits both your porch and your hospital? Diana Mcculloch from the PRHC Lab and D. Mcculloch Events is back this year with her festive holiday urn fundraiser. 

The 10″ pots feature fresh greens and your choice of red, white, gold, silver, or neutral-coloured accents. When you buy a holiday urn from Diana, $5 will be donated to the PRHC Foundation in support of empowering world-class patient care, right here, close to home. 

To place your order or learn more, email Diana. 

Thank you Diana and customers for your merry support! 

Give local this holiday season in support of PRHC

A selection of products on offer through Living Local's corporate gifting, including a cozy knit blanket, peppermint bark, hand soaps, candles, cider, and hot cocoa.
A selection of products on offer through Living Local's corporate gifting, including a cozy knit blanket, peppermint bark, hand soaps, candles, cider, and hot cocoa.

This holiday season, Living Local Marketplace has teamed up with Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation in support of reimagining health and care at your regional hospital! 

When you build a corporate gift box for a client or colleague, choosing from over a dozen curated holiday items sourced from across the province, $1 will be donated to the PRHC Foundation and Hospice Peterborough. 

All corporate gifts are completely customized, and Living Local Marketplace owner Alicia Doris and her team are there to help with ideas and inspiration every step of the way. Read the holiday gift guide here or shop in-store at Chemong Rd. and Milroy Dr. in Peterborough, Wednesday through Saturday, 11am-5pm.

Thank you Living Local Marketplace and customers for your festive support! 

Record-breaking donation from Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival

On October 9th, the PRHC Foundation proudly hosted this year’s Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival gift announcement. Together, the Festival’s host team, Survivors Abreast, the Dragon Boat Festival Planning Committee, Platinum Sponsor Kawartha Credit Union, paddlers, volunteers, and supporters, presented the Foundation with a record-breaking donation of $312,025.18 – the largest single gift in the Festival’s history!

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WATCH: Together, we’re reimagining health and care at our hospital

The $60 million Campaign for PRHC is the largest fundraising campaign in Peterborough Regional Health Centre’s and the PRHC Foundation’s history. Our community’s support of the campaign reflects our shared belief that we can’t afford to let the standard of care we’ve all helped establish slip away. Together, we’re reimagining health and care at our hospital by:

  • Empowering world-class care close to home
  • Fuelling innovation and introducing new lifesaving services to our region
  • Attracting top healthcare professionals
  • Inspiring and supporting solutions to critical hospital challenges

Watch the video to hear more!

Lakefield & District Lions Club launches Collaboration 50/50 Cash Raffle

On September 16th, the Lakefield & District Lions Club launched their new Collaboration 50/50 Cash Raffle! PRHC Foundation is excited to be one of the selected beneficiaries, alongside Kawartha Food Share, Community Care, and the Lakefield & District Lions. Raffle funds donated to the PRHC Foundation will empower world-class care at PRHC by fuelling innovation and bringing new, lifesaving services to our region. 

Ontario residents, 18 years of age or older, can purchase 50/50 tickets here. The draw will take place on November 15th. (License Number RAF1404060)

Help bring the best the world has to offer to our doorstep

Guided by Peterborough Regional Health Centre’s vision, led by campaign volunteers, and made possible by donors like you, we’ll propel innovation and transform care at our hospital through the Campaign for PRHC. Together, we’ll help advance the following areas of care: 

Cardiac Care – $11 million

Donor support is helping unlock opportunities and put the people, infrastructure, systems and programs in place to allow world-class cardiac care across the spectrum.

This includes building and equipping a new cardiac electrophysiology lab that will allow the cardiac care team to diagnose and treat patients with abnormal heart rhythms at PRHC for the first time in its history. These patients will no longer have to travel to hospitals as far away as Toronto or Kingston for lifesaving treatment.  

Cancer Care – $12 million

Donations are empowering experts to treat more patients with more cancer types, support earlier diagnosis, and ensure more effective treatments, close to home.

These life-changing advancements include digital pathology, a state-of-the-art, artificial intelligence supported laboratory technology that will help complete repetitive, time-consuming tasks in minutes instead of hours, so doctors can make diagnoses and treatment decisions sooner. 

PRHC will also expand pediatric cancer care, with a space designed for the expert delivery of cancer care to children. This will help keep vulnerable patients from becoming sicker, while lessening the big emotional and financial burden faced by families when they have to travel for their child’s lifesaving treatment.

Minimally Invasive Intervention – $14 million

Your gifts are allowing doctors, nurses and staff to treat patients with multiple life-threatening conditions – safely, quickly – in state-of-the-art new facilities like a hybrid operating room (OR). 

The advanced technology in a hybrid OR allows specialized care teams to perform multiple open and minimally invasive operations on the same patient, on the same day, in the same room. This means safer, more comfortable care and better results for a patient who would otherwise need multiple surgeries with months-long recovery time in between, if their health would even allow it. 

Mental Health – $4 million

Donors are helping to create healing environments and address increasing demand for care with modern mental health spaces. 

New areas at PRHC will include a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) courtyard – a safe, supportive outdoor space for some of the sickest patients in our hospital. PICU patients currently can’t go outside even though their stay could be weeks or months long. Research shows time outdoors improves outcomes and reduces length of stay in hospital, as well as the use of antidepressants.

PRHC will also help meet growing demand for psychiatric emergency care by expanding and improving the Crisis Response Unit in the Emergency Department. Increasing the size of the space will create a waiting area especially for children and youth in crisis and their families, as well as an accessible washroom with a shower, and a secure, short-stay area for high-risk patients who need enhanced nursing care. 

Urgent Needs – $17 million

Your gifts are enabling PRHC to respond quickly to the top emerging priorities each year, in areas like the Emergency Department, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and Breast Assessment Centre. 

Physician Innovation Accelerator Endowed Fund – $2 million 

Donations are helping PRHC invest in physician-driven research and creativity that will result in game-changing advances in patient care. The hospital will equip several doctors a year with the support to design, apply and evaluate their innovations. Not only will this benefit patients by helping them get out of hospital and back to their lives sooner, but it will also help PRHC attract and keep top-notch physicians.

Grateful family fundraising for pediatric cancer care expansion

Peterborough mom Victoria Wasson says a part of her will forever relive the day her son, Wyatt, was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma. Two years ago at just eight months old, Wyatt received a scan on a donor-funded CT machine at PRHC which led to the diagnosis. 

Victoria shares, “On that day we were surrounded by the most compassionate and empathetic nurses and doctors. They immediately began to fight with us to save our son and to keep our family together.” 

Thanks to donors, Wyatt was able to receive some of his treatment at PRHC. This allowed the Wassons to stay close to home, pick up their daughter from school, and be home to have family dinner together. 

As of March 2023, Wyatt is in remission. Inspired by the expert, compassionate care he received, Victoria has launched a $5,000 fundraiser in support of pediatric cancer care expansion, one of the priorities of the PRHC Foundation’s $60 million Campaign for PRHC. The Wassons are dedicated to giving back as thanks for Wyatt’s care, and to help expand pediatric cancer care at PRHC so other children like him can receive their treatment there. 

Please visit the Wassons’ personal fundraising page to learn more about Wyatt’s journey or to make a donation.