The Thistledown Foundation is gifting $26 million to support a baker’s dozen of children’s hospitals across Canada.
A donation of $2 million is going to 13 hospitals from coast to coast, including the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
Officials said this donation recognizes the immense impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s children, youth and their families.
“Through this gift, our hope is that children across Canada will have the best possible care to enable them to feel better soon and get back to the important job of being kids,” Thistledown Foundation co-founder Fiona McKean said in a press release on Thursday.
President and CEO of Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation Brynn Boback-Lane thanked the private charitable foundation for its generosity.
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“To receive such a generous gift from Thistledown Foundation … truly shines a bright light on the importance and urgency of children’s health and well-being during this unprecedented time,” Boback-Lane said in a statement.
“Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation will work with our provincial children’s hospital to transform possibilities into realities and to make a meaningful impact on our most vulnerable patients at such a crucial time in their lives.”
The funding is intended to meet urgent needs and to ensure children and families have access to the best available health care regardless of where they call home, according to the press release.
Established in 2019, Thistledown Foundation’s core mission is to advance technological solutions for decarbonization but expanded its focus to contribute to Canada’s COVID-19 response last year.