Reimagined 2021 Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival celebrates 20 years of fun and fundraising!

On Saturday June 12, 2021 Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival officially celebrated its 20th anniversary.

We’re so grateful for this beloved event! Over 20 years it has raised more than $3.6 million to help ensure world-class breast and other cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment are available to patients from across our region. Proceeds from the points-based 2021 Festival that promoted friendly competition for all ages through fun activities and fundraising will help fund a new, state-of-the-art diagnostic ultrasound for PRHC’s Breast Assessment Centre.

The primary use of the ultrasound is to help diagnose breast abnormalities such as a lump and to characterize potential abnormalities seen on mammography. The new ultrasound technology comes with many advancements that will improve image quality, increase its accuracy and make the patient experience more comfortable.

To date, the virtual Festival has raised $48,591.10!

On behalf of everyone at PRHC, especially patients and their families, thank you to the organizing committee, Survivors Abreast and all of the passionate sponsors, volunteers, participants and donors who make the Festival a success every year!

Your support of Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival will help to ensure that breast cancer patients have access to the latest, customized treatments, leading-edge technology and world-class care at your regional hospital. 

Learn more about the Festival and how you can still donate here!

PRHC is bringing cutting-edge new CT scanners to our region with your help

A Medical Radiation Technologist and volunteer demonstrate a CT scanner
A radiologist stands in front of a CT scanner

Dr. Mario Voros is a PRHC Radiologist who’s leading the charge to bring two new, state-of-the-art CT scanners to the hospital. We asked him to tell us about this cutting-edge equipment and how it will improve care for thousands of patients in our region…

What is CT scan technology?

A CT – or computed tomography – scan is a more powerful, dynamic, moving X-Ray. Unlike a traditional 2-dimensional X-Ray, CT scanners create hundreds of incredibly detailed cross-sectional images and 3-dimensional images of a patient’s anatomy. They’re unique because they can display a combination of soft tissue, bones and blood vessels in a single image.

Why are CT scans an important diagnostic tool?

Radiologists call CT the workhorse – or backbone – of the hospital. At PRHC, about 28,000 CT scans are performed each year because they’re crucial to rapidly confirming a diagnosis and beginning lifesaving treatment for many seriously sick or injured patients. We perform a CT scan for patients with head injuries to rule out a brain bleed. We use CT for rapid stroke assessment and to identify blockages or damage in arteries. We image for common issues like kidney stones and appendicitis. We use CT in cancer care. CT helps doctors diagnose fractures and issues related to trauma. A chest CT can even identify some consequences of COVID-19, like pneumonia.

Why does PRHC need new CT equipment?

PRHC’s current CT scanners are more than 12 years old and nearing the end of their lifespan. They must be replaced with new equipment. This is an opportunity to make significant advancements in our critical CT services because the technology has come a long way in a decade. We need the most advanced imaging technology available, so that every doctor at PRHC can do our jobs to the best of our ability.

How will the new CT scanners benefit patients?

The new CT scanners will fit the needs of the hospital now and well into the future. They’re the best available scanners on the market. They’re faster, meaning shorter scan times. This is better for all patients, but especially those in pain or distress. They’ll provide much better-quality images, making it easier for my colleagues and me to see what’s happening inside a patient’s body. And there’s less radiation used during a scan, which means less risk to the patient.

How will donors help make this equipment advancement possible?

The government doesn’t fund most of the technology doctors, nurses and staff use to provide patient care every day. So, we rely on donors to help us invest in equipment that is vital to the world-class care we provide to patients from across our region. It’s donors who make that care possible by giving to the PRHC Foundation to help fund cutting-edge tools, like essential new CT scanners. And at PRHC, we’re all very grateful for that support.

For more information or to support this exciting investment, please click here or call 705-876-5000.

Patient says “thank you” for cancer care close to home

Doctor on stool and patient on bed smiling

At age 41, Melissa Hinze was a typically busy working mom, running a home business. But in October 2016, she visited PRHC’s Breast Assessment Centre with a suspicious lump. Scans revealed cancer in both breasts. She had biopsies and received an emergency diagnosis on the spot.

Melissa’s instinct was to fight. “What do we do next?” she asked. She met a patient navigator, received a referral for surgery, and shortly thereafter, had a double mastectomy. Since then, with her focus on living with cancer under the care of Dr. Neera Jeyabalan, Melissa has had hormone treatments, chemotherapy, further surgeries and hospital stays.

“PRHC is second to none,” she says about the donor-funded equipment and technology she’s so thankful for. She can’t imagine having to travel and stay elsewhere for treatment. Instead, all her care happens close to home.

Receiving care locally has been essential to Melissa’s ability to stay motivated. It’s allowed her to see life a little differently and notice what she calls “the silver linings” that come from having world-class cancer care close to home, thanks to donor generosity.

“Coming in here [to PRHC] and having great care is number one,” Melissa says, and for that she’s extremely grateful. “Because of this community, I have great care and the smartest, compassionate doctor. Even during COVID-19, I always feel safe coming to PRHC.” This allows her and her husband to focus on her care and healthy living at home, where she’s spending a lot more quality time with her kids.

“In the blink of an eye this was all taken away.”

Cancer patient Anthony Serracino-Inglott knows all about the power of gratitude and the impact that donations are having on patient care at your hospital.

Not that long ago he was a typical 16-year-old kid from Lindsay, going to school, playing hockey and hanging out with his friends. “In the blink of an eye this was all taken away from me when I found out I had Philadelphia-Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia,” he says.

Anthony spent months in a Toronto hospital bed, far away from friends and family. Now thanks to donors, Anthony and other pediatric cancer patients can receive their cancer treatment at PRHC, close enough that they can have time at home with friends and family and sleep in their own beds. “You know, normal stuff,” Anthony says. “I can fit my treatment into my life, not my life into my treatment.”

With the incredible support of donors, the PRHC Foundation was able to fund all of the new equipment and technology needed to operate the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) Satellite Clinic at PRHC, completing the hospital’s current funding needs for pediatric cancer care in our region. We’re so grateful for this…and so is Anthony: “Thank you to everyone who supported this project and helped make sure kids like me can get their cancer care close to home.”

Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival donates $55,449 for the next important step forward in PRHC’s chemotherapy program

Volunteers outdoors with Dragin boat paddles and large cheque

Each and every year we are overwhelmed by the outpouring of community support we receive through Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival. 2020 was no exception.

We are so grateful that even after the tough decision to cancel last summer’s Festival due to COVID-19, Survivors Abreast and the Festival Planning Committee still raised an incredible $55,449 in support of 2020’s important fundraising priority: Robotic Intravenous Automation (RIVA) technology.

This generous donation will help fund the next important step forward in PRHC’s chemotherapy program. RIVA is cutting-edge robotic technology that automates the process of preparing medicines for chemotherapy. The result? Faster, more accurate cancer treatment.

Our deepest thanks to Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival, Survivors Abreast, and all the volunteers, fundraisers and sponsors for their continued commitment, passion and dedication to ensuring breast cancer patients have access to the latest treatments, technology and world-class care at PRHC!