Radio NL’s eighth annual Radiothon is underway and like years past, Kamloopsians are opening their wallets in support of the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation.
The Foundation’s CEO, Heidi Coleman, who’s been answering the phones this morning, says there is no shortage of emotional stories from people that have used the hospital. “I spoke to a woman this morning, and she said it’s all I can give, which was $25, which is an amazing gift.”
“I said how are you doing and she said ‘well, my husband is not doing that great but he’s used the hospital so many times and it’s just life but every time he comes in it’s so appreciated and they’re keeping him alive and she gets to spend more time with him and so she said she just wanted to give something back.”
The treatment that people receive and making sure we have the best hospital we can to help people in their time of need according to Coleman. “This is it. This is our one hospital and we all know where everybody is.”
“When I see people in the hallway, whether they’re my board members because of course they have parents and sisters and brothers and I look a them a say is everything okay? Sometimes it’s ‘my sister just had a baby!’ and sometimes it’s ‘my Mom’s in the ER.’ So, I know that we are doing the best we can”
Speaking on the NL Morning News this morning, Coleman explained where the money raised will be going. “People say to me, what does the foundation do? Well we buy the equipment the that at the moment, the government can’t.”
“This year the government, through the regional hospital district, has allocated $1.6 million to purchase equipment and that’s for Kamloops and the region. So, that’ll be Ashcroft, Cache Creek, everywhere and that’s 1.6 million.”
“We at the Foundation are adding to that, we put in another three to four million every year. So eventually yes, you could say all equipment would be bought but you’d have to wait many years before you get it.”
“So, when the doctors and the nurses put the equipment on the list and put high priority, this is what they need, well we want to buy that. I want to go to the hospital where I know the doctors have all the equipment they need.”
When the phone lines opened at 6:00 am this morning, Coleman was one of the volunteers taking calls and said it was a familiar voice making the first donation. “We had this great call this morning, from Dave and Tash in Barriere. They were the first callers last year as well and they donated $2,000 this year and thanks so much for starting us off. What a great morning.”
Radio NL listeners have opened their hearts and wallets to the tune of more than one million dollars with more than $236,000 coming in last year alone.
