‘Be a Light’: SickKids launches new campaign amid push to raise funds for new state-of-the-art facility

The latest chapter in the SickKids Foundation’s renowned SickKids VS: Limits campaign is out featuring patients of the pediatric hospital and their families and a call out to the public to ‘Be a Light.’

The ‘Be a Light’ campaign is designed to bring the community closer to the hospital’s patients and medical staff to illustrate why a new state-of-the-art facility is needed. It is also meant to call on the public to become a source of light by playing a part in defeating the darkness of childhood illness and donating monthly to the cause at BeALight.ca

“Every year we try to do something bold and breakthrough, to remain top of mind for people because we have a fight at SickKids that’s never-ending,” explained Kate Torrance, the vice president of brand strategy and communications at the SickKids Foundation.

“We’re trying to build a new hospital, and right now everybody recognizes how important hospitals are.”

The overall intent of this specific campaign is to dramatize the concept of good versus evil conflict by manifesting childhood illness as darkness – a threatening, invasive force that can overtake us all – and to illustrate the SickKids community as the brilliant, hopeful light that beats it back.

“Interestingly enough, in the last couple of years, I think everyone can appreciate what it feels like when an illness comes out of nowhere and sort of descends on you like a dark cloud. So there was this really interesting relationship between something that our SickKids families have always felt to something that everybody can relate to as a result of COVID,” said Torrance.

“And again, we all saw through COVID the importance of hospitals as really being a light to get us through those dark times.”

One of the patient ambassadors featured in the new video is 12-year-old Whitby resident Tiya Bainbridge, who is also a survivor of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

In January, after six aggressive cycles of chemotherapy, Bainbridge rang the bell at the Hospital for Sick Children after being deemed cancer-free. Bainbridge vowed to help the hospital that saved her life and started a fundraising campaign called Tiya’s Purpose selling bracelets.

“Cancer was one of the worst experiences of my life … I lost my hair, I was nauseous all the time, my blood count was low, I had blood transfusions,” recalled Bainbridge.

Bainbridge is in the home stretch of raising $40,000 for the facility.

“It was like a dark cloud coming over me and my SickKids medical team helped me in so many ways and I wanted to give back,” she said.

“The frontline workers, the medical staff, the medical team at SickKids Hospital they brought a light to this journey that made things feel a little better,” said her father, Terry Bainbridge.

SickKids’ ultimate fundraising goal is to raise $1.3 billion to build a new hospital.

“When you donate to SickKids, you really are contributing to a brighter future for our kids,” said Torrance.

“We hope that people take that away from this campaign that you can be a part of a brighter future, so be a light and support SickKids.”