The Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon. (Supplied photo/Jim Pattison Children's Hospital Foundation)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Health Care

Touching stories to be shared during Children’s Hospital Radiothon

Nov 3, 2020 | 4:00 PM

This year’s Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Radiothon Nov. 4-5 is going to mean an awful lot to children across the province like Torrie Schaffer.

Schaffer, now 13, got sick on the Easter long weekend in 2016 and was flown to Saskatoon and diagnosed with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).

Her mother Darci Skjeven said they were “missing a puzzle piece” in the past four years as Schaffer wasn’t getting better. Schaffer was then diagnosed with lupus earlier this year and after trying multiple options and medications, Schaffer was prescribed Obinutuzumab which seems to be really working. Skjeven said now her daughter “is good” so far after all the treatment.

“People should pick up their phones [for the radiothon] because then they are helping kids like me,” Schaffer said. “All the funds go towards equipment that kids need.”

More stories like Schaffer’s will be shared during the radiothon throughout Wednesday and Thursday, across all Jim Pattison Broadcast Group stations: Prince Albert’s Beach Radio 101.5, Power 99, and Saskatchewan Country 900 CKBI; on Saskatchewan Country CJNB/CJNS in the Battlefords and Meadow Lake, as well as Q98 and 93.3 The Rock; and in Melfort on Saskatchewan’s New Beach Radio and Today’s Best Country, 105 CJVR. Many other radio stations from different broadcast groups will also be broadcasting the radiothon.

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Children’s Hospital Foundation president and CEO Brynn Boback-Lane said the funds raised from the radiothon will go into opening a pediatric hemodialysis unit at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon—which will be the first of its kind in the province.

“It’s going to keep our children and families closer to home for treatment, it’s going to improve their quality of life,” Boback-Lane said. “Also, there seems to be an increasing need here in the province, so we wanted to ensure what we had was available and enhance it, so we could ensure more children would be able to use this hemodialysis unit.”

Because of the ongoing pandemic, the radiothon will be run entirely virtually, but Jim Pattison Broadcast Group program director in Prince Albert, Danny Kid, said that won’t stop the listener from being able to hear stories of those that have been helped by the Children’s Hospital.

“We are going to be able to check in with not only people in P.A. but all over the province. So all throughout the day, we’re going to have stories, some live and some pre-recorded tallies going throughout the two days,” Kid said. “So on-air, it’ll be pretty slick, it’ll be pretty smooth we’re still going to be playing a lot of music but hearing a lot of really, really touching stories.”

For those that would like to donate to the cause can do so here.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW