Officials with the fundraising arm of London’s Children’s Hospital are cheering the largest donation in its 100-year history, a $5-million gift intended to help childhood cancer patients.
Article content
More than 100 people gathered Monday for the announcement of the donation from London couple Dieter and Lyse Jahnke, who will establish the Jahnke Family Pediatric Oncology Center of Excellence. In her remarks, Lyse cited the motto she follows.
Article content
“We have the desire to give and a reason to live. That’s our focus,” she said.
The endowment was praised as “transformational” by Scott Fortnum, the Children’s Health Foundation’s CEO. He said the Jahnkes have been longtime supporters of the Children’s Hospital and called the family “friends of the foundation.”
Hospital officials detailed the couple’s background. Dieter came to Canada in 1961 with very little. Alongside his wife, he built the London-based office equipment company now known as OE Canada Inc. Their son, Peter Jahnke, detailed his parents’ motivation in supporting the hospital.
Article content
“It’s about the impact it can have on transforming health care, especially with such work dealing with (a) devastating disease such as childhood cancer,” he said.
Children’s Hospital is the regional pediatric oncology center for all of western Ontario. Based in London, it serves a population of 1.5 million, with more than 400,000 children in Southwestern Ontario.
Hospital officials plan to immediately use some of the money to buy three ultrasound machines worth $200,000 each.
The Children’s Health Foundation was founded in 1922 and raises money to support children and their families from across the region who need to access care. Hospitals are publicly funded, but London Health Sciences Center and its affiliate hospitals frequently secure large donations.
In November, dying trucking magnate Archie Verspeeten gave $20 million to LHSC’s fundraising arm, the London Health Sciences Foundation. The biggest donation in hospital history, it resulted in the re-naming of the London Regional Cancer Program to the Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network