Healthcare Foundation Team – back left to right: Cally Sykes, Avry Janes, and Lauren Klaus; at the front left to right: Marcie Dumais and Rhonda Stevens.

With women representing over 80% of the people working in healthcare in the Comox Valley, International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate their care, knowledge, and skill in looking after all of us, throughout every stage of our lives. The team at the Comox Valley Healthcare Foundation (CVHF) finds incredible inspiration in the exceptional people providing care locally and feel grateful to work with a community that consistently shows their commitment to enhancing the quality of healthcare in our region.

Working with caring people is at the heart of what we do.

CVHF supports acute care at the hospital, community healthcare, and long-term care at not-for-profit care homes. Time and time again, Foundation staff see the different ways this community comes together to ensure our loved ones receive the best possible care, close to home.

One of those ways is improving care for people with breast cancer. This past year, sophisticated medical imaging tools elevated breast cancer diagnoses and care at the Comox Valley Hospital. Generous
donors in our community funded a Breast Imaging Biopsy Unit and specialized breast MRI software. The year before, a new neoprobe was added to the surgical toolkit thanks to donors. This device, used
in breast cancer detection, helps surgeons determine affected areas, facilitating better treatment plans and less tissue loss for patients.

Love for this community and its people drives the Foundation team. Staff bring diverse experience to their roles whether it’s a full military career (Rhonda), generations calling the Comox Valley home (Avry), many years leading a well-loved, grassroots non-profit (Marcie), love for the mountains from working in Whistler (Lauren), or bringing stakeholders together to create positive change in urban neighbourhoods of the United Kingdom (Cally). Each of these women value each other and the trust placed in them to bring their best work to the charitable healthcare sector.

Special thanks to Courtney & Anglin Real Estate Group for sponsoring this feature and for their many years of support toward local healthcare.