Donate your empties in support of your hospital

Cheers and thanks to The Beer Store!

Throughout 2021, Beer Store employees, customers, and communities worked hard to raise funds for worthy causes across the province. Last year, The Beer Store supported over 100 local hospitals and foodbanks and raised $258,843.

This year, from July 4th-August 28th, The Beer Store is thrilled to be supporting local organizations again. With your help, The Beer Store is proud to support local charities within the community – including PRHC Foundation. Please visit The Beer Store to support by making a monetary donation or donating your empty returns.

Donations made at Peterborough and area The Beer Store locations below will help fund the equipment and technology the hardworking healthcare workers at Peterborough Regional Health Centre use to provide outstanding patient care.

• Store 4701 – 570 Lansdowne St. W., Peterborough, K9J 6Z8

• Store 4702 – 139 George St. N., Peterborough, K9J 3G6

• Store 4703 – 1154 Chemong Rd., Peterborough, K9H 7J6

• Store 4705 – 882 Ward St., Bridgenorth, K0L 1H0

• Store 4709 – 102 Queen St., Lakefield, K0L 2H0

• Store 4710 – 1900 Lansdowne St. W., Peterborough, K9J 3K7

Supporting cancer care is sweet

Couture Candy PTBO – where the motto is #BeingKindIsSweet – has launched a fundraiser called “Supporting cancer care is sweet” to do just that: support cancer care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre!

Inspired by her many customers who come to Candy Couture PTBO looking to send a treat to someone impacted by cancer, owner Lisa wants to give back to the community.

From now until October 3rd, the shop will donate a portion of the proceeds from over 10 of their most popular products to the PRHC Foundation.

But that’s not all, during the shop’s ice cream fundraisers throughout the summer, everyone who donates at checkout will get their name on an exclusive donor card displayed in the front window of the store!

Visit them in person seven days a week in downtown Peterborough at 386 George St. N. or online.

Thanks to Lisa and her Couture Candy PTBO customers for being so sweet!

Flower power: Floral subscriptions that give back

pink and green floral arrangement

Diana McCulloch, from the PRHC Lab and D. McCulloch Events, has once again combined her passions in generous support of the PRHC Foundation. She’s offering seasonal floral subscriptions with free delivery within Peterborough. Plus each subscription includes a donation to the Foundation to help your hospital invest in the equipment and technology used every day in the care of patients from across our region.

For all the details and options within the 1-, 3- and 6-arrangement subscriptions, please see the order form or email Diana. You can also check out more of her beautiful floral arrangements, including examples from every season, on Instagram or Facebook.

Thank you so much, Diana and subscribers, for your ongoing support!

#GetInTheBoat: Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival is back on the water!

On Saturday June 11, 2022 Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival will safely welcome our community back to Little Lake at Del Crary Park in Peterborough for a great day on the water in support of PRHC Foundation and cancer care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre! Get your team together and get ready to #GetInTheBoat! More information is available online now.

We’re so grateful for this beloved event and vital fundraiser which has raised more than $3.7 million since 2001 to help fund world-class cancer and breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment at PRHC. Proceeds from the 2022 Festival will support the Health Centre’s continuing mission to bring the best cancer care the world has to offer, right to your regional hospital. 

With your support, PRHC will be able to serve more patients, support earlier cancer diagnosis, and ensure safer, more effective treatment, close to home. You’ll be helping the hospital invest in equipment and technology like new state-of-the-art CT scanners, a second cutting-edge MRI machine, and RIVA technology for the robotic preparation of chemotherapy. You’ll also be helping PRHC attract and retain the best and brightest healthcare professionals. 

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!

Dave’s Walk inspired our community to get involved and raise over $11,000 for PRHC!

Dave Graham holds a donation cheque

Dave Graham and his family were shocked when he was diagnosed with colon cancer in late March 2021. “But we had to keep our heads up and keep going,” he says. 74-year-old Dave truly got going. He started walking for exercise and his daily strolls gave him time to think and pray. His strong faith played a large role in carrying him through his diagnosis, then surgery a couple of months later.

Dave describes PRHC’s Cancer Clinic as another bright light at that dark time. While he wasn’t happy about why he had to go there, he found he looked forward to seeing the healthcare professionals who supported him during his twice monthly chemotherapy appointments. He appreciated their compassionate and upbeat attitudes, and straightforward approach to care.

Dave also found comfort in the support of his family, church community and close friends. One of those friends had his own personal experience with a cancer diagnosis and care at PRHC’s Cancer Clinic. Dave had always admired his friend’s positive spirit and after his diagnosis, appreciated it even more. “And there are so many people with cancer,” Dave says. “They’re all suffering and struggling, and I wanted to inspire them the way my friend inspired me.”

While experiencing great care and with so much support around him, Dave decided that something good had to come from his diagnosis. He was moved to give back to his hospital and his community.

Dave approached the PRHC Foundation, and with a little help, set up a fundraising initiative as a way to say thank you to PRHC’s Cancer Care team and contribute to the care of other cancer patients. He couldn’t have known then the extent of the positive impact his fundraiser would have.

Dave set a big goal: Walk 7,000 steps a day through mid-December when his chemotherapy was due to end, and raise $5,000 to help fund the equipment and technology PRHC’s doctors, nurses and staff use every day to provide outstanding cancer care to patients from around the region, close to home.

The community’s response to Dave’s fundraiser was overwhelming. Not only did people donate, they reached out with prayers and words of encouragement and thanks. Dave received emails and phone calls, sometimes from acquaintances he hadn’t seen in years.

“One day the doorbell rang,” Dave says. “And there was a man I worked with 30 years ago. He’d heard about the fundraiser and wanted to personally give me a $100 donation and wish me well.”

People Dave has never met reached out, too. “I’ve received notes from strangers, people who are also going through cancer or have a family member with cancer,” he says. “They’d say, ‘we’re all going through this, we have to help each other.’”

The support of his community inspired Dave all over again. “Some mornings instead of getting up to walk at 6am, I just wanted to stay in bed. But my community kept me going,” he says. “All these people were walking with me.”

Soon Dave surpassed his $5,000 goal and he raised the bar to $10,000. The area’s residents responded once more, taking Dave’s Walk from one man’s objective to “a team effort,” Dave says.

PRHC Foundation President & CEO, Lesley Heighway, describes the ripple effect community fundraisers have. “They give people hope and it inspires other people to consider making a difference of their own by doing something similar,” she says. “Financially, fundraisers are extremely important for our hospital, but they also galvanize people. They bring people together. Dave inspired others to think ‘Wow, look at what he’s doing. Maybe I could do something similar.’”

Dave’s fundraiser grew beyond a single walk to a series of creative initiatives as more and more people were motivated to get involved.  

His daughter Leslie and son Matt organized a Hair & Handlebar shave with the hope of raising $1,000 to contribute to their father’s goal. Over $2,000 later, Leslie shaved her head and Matt sacrificed his signature moustache for the cause.

Dave’s wife, Liz, wasn’t to be outdone. “I baked 11 dozen shortbreads and pickled two big lots of beets to sell on Facebook,” she says. “And then my hairdresser heard about it and took six dozen of the cookies.” Other businesses in the region also reached out to make donations.

In December, Dave finished his chemotherapy and his walk, having taken 765,000 steps in his journey to say thanks for great care and help ensure patients like him continue to receive advanced, personalized cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment at PRHC.

PRHC Foundation President & CEO, Lesley Heighway, explains that since the government doesn’t fund hospital equipment, PRHC relies on community donations to fund the tools Health Centre experts use every day. “All of those gifts come together to enable the great care that we have here,” she says. “It’s also a huge morale boost when staff and medical professionals see what people like Dave are undertaking in the community to ensure that the next person who comes after them can have access to world-class care.”

Shortly after Dave finished his walk and treatment, the PRHC Foundation was grateful to receive $11,111 in donations collected through his fundraiser. And then Dave and Liz topped even that amount! “A Christmas card came with $50 in it,” says Liz. “So we added that to the donation to bring it to $11,161.”

“This experience was so humbling,” says Dave. “It’s an experience I wouldn’t have wanted to miss. I know at my age I won’t have a chance to do something like this again for my community. I feel fulfilled.”

The PRHC Foundation is incredibly grateful for the generosity of Dave and Liz, their family, friends and congregation, and the wider community who donated and contributed their time and support to Dave’s Walk. The funds raised are enabling PRHC to invest in advanced new CT scanner and MRI technology used in the diagnosis of cancer, and a state-of-the-art robotic intravenous automation (RIVA) system to ensure every complex, patient-specific chemotherapy dose is prepared safely and accurately in a sterile, automated environment.  

It’s donors who make the difference between good and great care. On behalf of PRHC, especially patients and their families, thank you to everyone involved in this generous initiative.

If you’d like to learn more about organizing your own personal fundraiser, please visit our Events page.

“It’s in the Cards” for Cancer Care

Photo of Tracey smiling

This is Tracey. She was diagnosed with breast cancer on February 8, 2021. She had a mastectomy in March and underwent 20 rounds of radiation at Peterborough Regional Health Centre last summer. 

Tracey shared with us how incredibly grateful she was to receive radiation close to home. For her, this meant that she could still row all summer, an activity she says “is one of the things that keeps me from being a horrible, grump of a human”.

She is also thankful for the staff who work in the radiation department at PRHC. She says they made her feel strong and supported.

To say thank you for the care she received, Tracey has created a fundraiser with the goal of raising $5,000 in support of Cancer Care at PRHC! She is selling cards, beautifully designed by her husband, with a blank inside you can personalize. 

Illustration of a single leaf on a tree branch

The image on the card was inspired by this experience Tracey had:

“I do yoga every morning, and during my recovery it was particularly important both physically and mentally. Right after my surgery I noticed a single leaf clinging with all its might to a branch on the tree in my back yard. It was the only leaf on the whole tree, and it held on tight throughout the harsh winds and cold storms of the winter. I came to see that little leaf as my guide, as something to remind me of my own inner strength, as something to help me keep holding on. It was only with the warmth of the spring sun and the blooming of the buds that my little leaf disappeared, and by then I knew I could survive whatever was thrown at me. It got me through the hardest of times. It gave me strength.”

A pack of six cards is $25 and can be purchased through Tracey’s personal PRHC Foundation fundraising page. Tracey and her family are covering all the costs for printing and postage – please see her page for shipping details.

Thank you so much, Tracey and family! We’re so grateful for your support of your regional hospital!