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NEWS RELEASE — July 5, 2005
Two Vancouver residents among top fundraisers for VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation at Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon & 5K
VANCOUVER, July 5, 2005 – A husband honouring his wife's memory and a surgeon raising money for a nurses' education fund were among the leading fundraisers at the 7th Annual Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon & 5K, held on June 26, 2005.
This year, more than 4,000 participants raised over $120,000 for VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation's Your Health—Your Choice program to support a variety of important programs and centres at the hospitals, including the Breast Reconstruction Program, the Spine Centre, the Eye Care Centre, the ALS Clinic, the Ovarian Cancer Research Program and the in it for life Fund, which funds top priority medical needs.
Stu Clugston led a team of more than 100 supporters — Dr. Patty's Pals — who participated in the event and raised $30,120 for UBC Hospital's Breast Reconstruction Program in memory of Stu's wife, Dr. Patty Clugston who died March 1, 2005 at the age of 46. A talented plastic surgeon, Dr. Clugston founded the program 10 years ago and dedicated her life to giving renewed hope to women with breast cancer. More than 1,000 breast cancer patients have benefited over the past decade from the increased use of the approach developed by Dr. Clugston that enables women to have breast reconstruction completed as part of their mastectomy.
Dr. Patty's Pals earned the event's top fundraising team honour and were awarded a $1,000 cash prize, compliments of Scotiabank, which will also be donated to the Breast Reconstruction Program.
Dr. Stephen Chung, a surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) was the second top individual fundraiser. He raised $10,000 to help establish the General Surgery Nurses Education Fund, which will allow the nurses to develop their knowledge and expertise in general surgery.
While Stephen Chung had huge support for his fundraising efforts from the nurses, patients and other doctors, one physician, Dr. Andrezej Buczkowski, wanted to guarantee the $10,000 goal would be reached. He bet that Stephen wouldn't be able to beat his previous half-marathon time of 1:44:24 and that if he managed to beat his time, Dr. Buczkowski would match all pledges up to $5,000. On the flip side, Stephen had to beat his time or match the pledges himself. Dr. Chung said that without his supporters cheering him on when he crested the Burrard Bridge, he couldn't have done it. He is more than happy to accept the pledge payment from Dr. Buczkowski.
The Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon & 5K is part of the prestigious Canada Running Series, and is also part of the Sun Run Series. For more information on the event, please visit www.canadarunningseries.com/svhm. For information on VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, please call (604) 875-4676 or visit www.supportvgh.ca.
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For further information contact:
Jon Hicke, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation (604) 875-5196 jon.hicke@supportvgh.ca
Jennifer Baxter, Scotiabank (604) 668-2008 jennifer.baxter@scotiabank.com