Friends step up for Lori's Legacy
The donors Lorna and Doug Martin
The Gift: Nearly $1-million and climbing
The Cause: St. Joseph's Health Centre Foundation
The Reason: To fund special rooms for cancer patients and medical equipment.
When Lorna and Doug Martin lost their only daughter, Lori, to esophageal cancer in February, 1996, they wanted to do something in her memory. They remembered the old crank-up bed their daughter had at St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto and they asked for donations to buy the hospital a new electronic bed. So much money poured in that the couple managed to not only fund a new bed, but also refurbish an entire room with air conditioning, a reclining chair for family members and a warmer decor. The first "Lori's Room" opened in August, 1996, but the Martins didn't stop there.
With the help of friends in their Toronto neighbourhood, they raised more money to fix up other rooms in the hospital's cancer wing. They also started an annual walk-a-thon in 1999 that raised around $75,000 last year.
Today St. Joseph's has 26 Lori's Rooms, which cost about $10,000 apiece. The Lori's Legacy Fund has contributed $500,000 toward construction of a new, spacious chemotherapy clinic and a special quiet room, where doctors, patients and family members can meet privately. It has also funded awards for oncology nurses to help pay for educational courses and it is raising money for a $350,000 digital mammography machine.
"I don't know how to put it but we sort of threw some seeds into a garden, the garden started to grow and it kind of grew way beyond our expectations," said Ms. Martin, 79, who is a retired school secretary. "It started as a mom-and-pop operation at our kitchen table."
When Mr. Martin, a long-time school board administrator and community volunteer, died last year Ms. Martin worried that she wouldn't be able to continue the fund. But a dozen friends have stepped in to help.
"I thought this is going to be the end of Lori's Legacy," she said. "But we have a group that is really gung ho."
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