The Shuswap Hospital Foundation has received funding for new respiratory equipment thanks to donations of the Tb Vets Charitable Foundation.
The $30,000 grant will go towards the purchase of a Vyntus Body Box, a pulmonary strength testing machine, for Shuswap Lake General Hospital. The rest of the funding for the $70,000-plus machine is anticipated next year. Once the equipment is installed, TB Vets said approximately 1,700 patients in the region will benefit.
Residents of the greater Salmon Arm area have had to travel to Vernon or Kamloops for pulmonary testing recently in the aftermath of the pandemic, which closed or hindered many lung function labs, explained TV Vets in a media release. This created a financial barrier for many and risked longer wait times for time-sensitive testing.
The funding were raised through TB Vets’ Key Tag fundraising campaign, in which donors receive a key tag with a unique number as a gift. If the keys with a key tag are lost, they can be dropped in any Canada Post mailbox and the keys will be delivered to TB Vets, then returned to the owner, at no cost. This simple but effective lost-and-found promise allows TB Vets to provide almost a million dollars in grants to those who need help breathing.
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