Kamloops Blazers legend Shane Doan and his wife Andrea have been named as Honorary Chairs of the Royal Inland Hospital’s Patient Care Tower’s Together We Rise fundraising campaign.

Speaking to NL News, Shane Doan says it was important for his family to give back to a community that has given him so much over the years.

“I think as an athlete sometimes you get a little bit more of a platform and so you want to do everything you can to point that in the direction of something that has significant impact on the community and so we’re going to do what we can to help out,” he said.

“I know that sounds all cliched but really that’s all it is. We want to create an environment that gives it the best opportunity to be successful.”

The RIH Foundation says the Doan family has donated a “generous gift” towards the campaign’s $35-million fundraising goal – an amount Shane tells NL News they prefer to keep anonymous.

“If you give back, it seems to be way more beneficial. It seems to be way more rewarding and it seems to help way more. Athletes sometimes tend to be takers and I think its so important to be givers. That’s kind of the way my wife and I have approached this,” he added.

“If we can give them any support and help them out in anyway, then its going to be something that will benefit the whole community.”

Doan, a Halkirk, Alta. native, played three seasons with the Blazers, winning two Memorial Cups in 1994 and 1995. Andrea meanwhile was raised in Kamloops, and the pair – along with their four children – regularly return to the area to visit friends and family.

“We are extremely grateful to Andrea and Shane for taking on the Together We Rise Tower Campaign honorary chair roles. Their involvement and commitment to the success of the public fundraising efforts will go a long way in helping achieve [our goal] for both phases of the project,” Jim Reynolds, the Cabinet Chair of the fundraising campaign, said.

Speaking to NL News, Andrea Doan says the family was “honoured” to be asked to step into the role.

“We were hoping to get back this summer but due to COVID we couldn’t,” she said. “But to see what is going on right now and how much of an impact it will have on the area, it just does our heart good. There haven’t been a lot of renovations at the hospital, but there is so much going on now. It is so exciting”

“We are thrilled for the community, thrilled for the doctors and the nurses, and thrilled for the medical community.”

Construction on the Patient Care Tower which will include new private patient room, new operating rooms, and a mental health and substance use inpatient unit among other things began in 2018 and it is scheduled to be completed in summer 2022. That is when work on Phase II of the project – which will include the renovation and expansion to the emergency department, post anesthetic recovery unit, pediatric unit, and the morgue – is set to begin.

“With support from the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation, the local community and wider region, the new Patient Care Tower will soon come to fruition, bringing new patient care spaces and innovative state-of-the-art technology,” Tracey Rannie, the Executive Director of Clinical Operations at RIH, said, in a statement.

“This major investment will benefit all patients and families who use Royal Inland Hospital throughout the Thompson Cariboo region.”