The Hospital for Sick Children has received a $100-million donation from the Peter Gilgan Foundation, marking the largest single gift in the institution’s history.
Officials said the donation is part of a broader $1.3-billion campaign called SickKids VS Limits. The campaign, which is scheduled to run until 2022, will go toward hospital improvements and building a new patient care centre on University Avenue, as well as pediatric health research and patient care initiatives.
“This gift is unparalleled and will help ensure our vision becomes reality,” SickKids president and CEO Dr. Ronald Cohn said in a statement on Monday.
The hospital, which treats more than 150,000 children and teenagers a year, said the new patient care centre will be referred to as the Peter Gilgan Family Patient Care Tower. It will have critical care and inpatient units, a blood and marrow/cellular transplant unit, a larger emergency department, specialized operating suites and advanced diagnostic imaging facilities.
Gilgan is the billionaire founder of Mattamy Homes. In 2014, he donated $30 million to St. Michael’s Hospital toward the construction of a new 17-storey patient care tower. In 2012, he donated $40 million toward the development of the SickKids Centre for Research and Learning.
SickKids said $914 million of the $1.3-billion SickKids VS Limits campaign has been raised to date.