P.E.I. couple donates $1 million to Charlottetown hospital foundation in form of life insurance policy
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Valerie Docherty of Elmwood, P.E.I., remembers gearing up for the battle of her life when she was identified with most cancers in 1995.
Since then, the previous MLA has devoted her life to fundraising for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Basis, becoming a member of the muse’s board of administrators in 2018 earlier than chairing its Pals for Life marketing campaign in 2021-22.
However, Docherty and her husband, Alex, wished to do extra.
They determined to donate $1 million to the muse within the type of a life insurance coverage coverage, naming the charity because the proprietor and beneficiary. It’s the biggest life insurance coverage donation ever given to the muse.
“I’ve survived most cancers, greater than as soon as,” Valerie instructed SaltWire Community throughout an interview with the couple on July 12 on the Marinas of Charlottetown, which they co-own with Peter Toombs. “I’ve witnessed, first-hand, the significance of getting state-of-the-art tools out there in P.E.I.”
Valerie stated they haven’t specified the place the cash must be used, though the couple admits to having a particular place of their hearts for the P.E.I. Most cancers Therapy Centre in Charlottetown, which opened in 1999.
She was identified with stage 4B non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995 after noticing a lump on her neck.
“It was in my chest, by means of my abdomen, my lymphatic system, and my bone marrow was impacted.”
Valerie would shortly enter remission solely to have the most cancers present up once more in 1996. She would wish a bone marrow transplant.
“It was solely supposed to provide me 5 years, interval,’’ she stated.
“That’s when it bought actual, for me,” added Alex, who additionally runs the household enterprise, Skye View Farms.
Weeks of chemotherapy adopted, as did hospital stays in Halifax.
She’d undergo a 3rd bout with the illness in 2002.
Medical doctors monitored Valerie whereas she experimented with holistic remedies.
Instantly, the tumour began to shrink earlier than finally disappearing.
Valerie has been most cancers free since 2008.
Throughout her most cancers journey, Valerie stated she solely considered giving up for one very temporary second earlier than snapping out of it.
She consistently fought to dwell for Alex and to see their two sons, Logan and Jordan, develop up.
“I bear in mind pondering when Logan was three and Jordan was seven if all I may get is 5 extra years, they’d be 5 years older and have 5 extra years of reminiscences with Mother,” Valerie stated, her eyes filling with tears. “So, when (the most cancers) got here again a 3rd time in 2002, I wasn’t prepared (to surrender). I wished to see the following stage of their lives so, (I believed), ‘we’re going to get by means of this’.”
Valerie credit her optimistic outlook, the help of her household and buddies and sheer religion as getting her by means of the worst of it.
“It’s a must to consider,” Valerie stated.
“I nonetheless inform folks, ‘I assure you might have the battle is up right here’. There’s the proof,” Alex stated, pointing to his head earlier than nodding in Valerie’s course.
Because of Valerie’s most cancers historical past, she couldn’t get the life insurance coverage coverage in her identify.
The coverage is in Alex’s identify, and it’ll go in the direction of buying tools in want when he dies.
Alex and Valerie determined to share their story within the hopes it would encourage others to contemplate the reward of life insurance coverage the identical manner they had been impressed by others who gave earlier than them.
“Much like our household, there’s a new era taking up the potato business in addition to many different companies within the province,” Alex stated. “There might be a large switch of property, and charitable giving may also help scale back the tax burden.”
Alex is fast so as to add {that a} life insurance coverage reward will be a lot smaller than $1 million, including that he’s already bought some buddies fascinated by their very own donations.
Valerie provides that the muse pays for nearly all the pieces contained in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, apart from infrastructure prices and salaries.
“Islanders want to know that, for essentially the most half, taxpayers are serving to to help what they and their household and buddies make the most of within the hospital due to beneficiant donations,” she stated.
Patsy MacLean, chair of the QEH Basis, stated donations make sure the hospital has essentially the most up-to-date medical tools.
“We’re so happy the Dochertys selected the QEH for this unimaginable donation,” MacLean stated in an announcement emailed to SaltWire Community. “This legacy reward exhibits their dedication for bettering the lives of their household, buddies and neighbours.”
Simply the information
Following is a pattern of what the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Basis fundraises for, on an ongoing foundation, on the hospital:
- IV pump, $5,000
- Affected person stretcher, $7,200
- Emergency room stretcher, $14,225
- Blanket hotter, $7,000
- Automated blood stress unit, $5,000
- Vein viewer, $10,000
- Pulse oximeter, $1,000
- Wheelchair, $1,000
- Bladder scanner, $18,000
- Affected person mattress, $15,168
Dave Stewart is a reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island. He will be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @DveStewart.
