With ‘Love, Scarborough,’ Scarborough Health Network Foundation Asks Toronto to Back Scarborough up

"Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. At the time, I was pregnant, scared, and uncertain about my future. But all I could think of at the time was whether my baby was going to be ok. Thankfully, at SHN’s Centenary hospital, I was not only able to deliver my baby, but also beat my cancer...Since then, I’ve been trying to give back to the hospital that has given me a new lease on life."

Society & Culture

Mar 29, 2022

TamilCulture Media

Entrepreneur

Toronto, Canada

TC is pleased to be partnering with Scarborough Health Network (SHN) Foundation to support their Love, Scarborough campaign.

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Scarborough Health Network (SHN) Foundation launched the Love, Scarborough marketing campaign earlier this year. This campaign will directly support their $100 million fundraising goal to help close the healthcare gap and is calling on the City of Toronto to back them up.

Scarborough, home to a large population of Tamils, accounts for 25% of Toronto’s population yet receives less than 1% of the hospital donations. “Although Scarborough is the GTA’s most economically disadvantaged community and serves a catchment area of nearly 1 million people, our hospitals have been left behind. SHN receives only a small fraction of the hospital donations to care for our diverse and growing community. We’re doing incredible work with what we have, but we could be doing so much more,” says Alicia Vandermeer, President and CEO of SHN Foundation. SHN is made up of three hospitals that serve one of the most diverse communities, not only in Toronto but the whole country.

Scarborough is also home to a large number of new Canadians – who often speak a primary language other than English – and SHN serves a catchment area of over 832,000 people. SHN is committed to providing world-class, inclusive care across numerous disciplines for Canada’s most diverse community, but it’s significantly underfunded.

Recently, SHN Foundation launched Love, Scarborough to kick off this historic donation push – the biggest in SHN’s history. The mass media marketing campaign aims to raise awareness for the need to close Toronto’s health care gap by driving donations not just from Scarborough, but across the GTA. The campaign is an open letter from Scarborough to the rest of the Greater Toronto Area imploring them to help level the playing field. Throughout the campaign, the font that is featured was created from the real handwriting of 26 different individuals connected to SHN – one for each letter of the alphabet. On LoveScarborough.ca, people can learn about these people’s stories and even submit their own story using the font, aptly named “Scarborough Sans”. Funds raised will support expanded emergency departments, integrated communities of care, accessible medical imaging and barrier-free mental health care.

Fiona Kingsley Boyer, Cancer Patient

Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. At the time, I was pregnant, scared, and uncertain about my future. But all I could think of at the time was whether my baby was going to be ok. Thankfully, at SHN’s Centenary hospital, I was not only able to deliver my baby, but also beat my cancer. I am now in my third year of remission, and the treatment I received from the doctors and nurses has humbled me and helped me develop a sense of pride.

Since then, I’ve been trying to give back to the hospital that has given me a new lease on life. I joined Scarborough Health Network Foundation because I wanted the Scarborough community to know about all the amazing things being done in our hospitals and be proud of it too. Scarborough is unique because there is a strong sense of community here. The thought that you can come from anywhere in the world, start a whole new life, and even meet people from your home country is such a comforting thought. It’s something to take pride in.