Safeway Employees Show Huge Hearts Again

By Heather Vita - January 19, 2019

Whether it’s providing patient comfort or life-saving equipment, Safeway employees from across Northwestern Ontario continue to lead with their generous hearts and are supporting better healthcare at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre through their donations made by payroll deduction.

Every year, employees are given a choice as to where they’d like to donate; this year, they chose to fund a Blanket Warmer for the Cancer Centre and a Temporary Pacemaker for the Cardiac Catheterization Lab – a total of $11,644.

Manager of Cancer Care Nursing Services, Karen Roberts, explained, “When patients come for chemotherapy, they are often sitting for hours at a time and when we give chemotherapy by intravenous line, it often causes patients to get cold. We use a warmed blanket to give patients comfort and keep them warm. Typically, however, it takes about 45 minutes for us to warm a blanket in our blanket warmer and we don’t have enough blankets to give to every patient or to provide a new blanket when one cools off. Having an additional blanket warmer for our chemotherapy unit is extremely beneficial. We’re very grateful to Safeway employees for choosing to direct their donations to this particular piece of equipment that really will keep patients more comfortable as they are receiving exceptional cancer care by our team of healthcare professionals.”

Safeway employees are providing life-saving cardiac care thanks to their donation of $4,972 to fund a new Temporary Pacemaker for the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. Pictured are (left to right): Penny Antony, District Operator, Safeway; ): Cindy Normand, Store Manager, Safeway Court St.; Alex Siciliano, Store Manager, Safeway Dawson Rd.; Gord Hampton, Store Manager, Safeway Arthur St.; Dr. Andrea MacDougall, Chief of Cardiology and Interventional Cardiologist; Kelli Gerry, Registered Nurse; and Josh Belanger, Registered Nurse.

Additionally in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, donations were directed to a Temporary Pacemaker, something Manager, Terri Gurney knows, is critical. “This is life-saving equipment,” she reinforced. “We use a Temporary Pacemaker when one is needed immediately and there’s no time to wait for a permanent one to be implanted. Usually a patient doesn’t require the pacemaker for more than a few days, but it’s quite critical during the time when it is required. Sometimes we use this for patients who’ve had a heart attack, or when there’s damage caused to pathways from disease or aging that isn’t allowing the heart’s electrical signals to get through correctly to the muscles. Our current Pacemaker is 19 years old and it was very important that it be replaced. Our thanks go out to Safeway employees for providing this much-needed donation so we could replace this equipment.”

“Safeway employees are incredibly proud to support better health care at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre,” said Renee Hopfner, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Safeway. “Our employees take great pride knowing that the funds raised through the Safeway Employee Payroll Donation Program are providing the necessary equipment to ensure patients are receiving the best quality of care they need when they need it most.”

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