Impact, annual reports, current
2023–2024
Annual Report
Celebrating 40 years of impact on patients and their loved ones, creating a healthier future for all New Brunswickers
A letter from our president & CEO
To our valued donors and community,
On behalf of everyone at the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your generous support over the past 40 years. Your commitment to our mission makes a profound difference in advancing patient care, and I am truly honoured to have you as partners in this journey.
Thanks to your support and trust, the Saint John Regional Hospital and vital health care partners in our communities are making significant strides in improving access and care by investing in health care excellence. Last year was no exception – with your support, we’re celebrating our most impactful year-to-date.
Donors helped transform MRI services, supported hundreds of cancer patients to readjust to daily life after diagnosis and treatment, and invested in research and education, demonstrating our community’s commitment to retaining top medical talent in our province.
Our annual report is a beautiful opportunity to thank you and demonstrate the impact your generous gifts are making. This year we’ve also included a brief lookback at the wonders you’ve worked over the past 40 years. When I take a holistic look at what’s been accomplished and the momentum we continue to have in transforming care at the Saint John Regional Hospital and beyond, it never ceases to amaze me what our donor community makes possible. Your support and the remarkable care of our healthcare providers, is a powerful combination. It demonstrates the power of collaboration and how partnership is needed in finding solutions.
As our province’s largest and most specialized hospital, the SJRH cares for patients from every community in New Brunswick. Today's healthcare challenges are complex. Your unwavering commitment empowers the Foundation to fund solutions to these challenges, support our dedicated hospital staff, and invest in continuous improvement for patient care.
President & CE0
With heartfelt gratitude,
Shannon Hunter
I am deeply grateful to our volunteer leadership, hospital partners, and the dedicated team of fundraisers at the SJRH Foundation. Thanks to your trust and partnership, together, we're creating a healthier future.
I am excited about tomorrow and the continued impact we can achieve together.
Celebrating 40 years of working wonders, together.
Have a memory to share or recognize someone in one of these photos?
We’d love to hear from you.
Your Impact
by the Numbers
raised to create a healthier tomorrow.
granted to advance patient care & innovations.
gifts in wills to create lasting legacies.
raised by community events.
gifts received from donors like you.
raised in honour or memory of loved ones.
In FY23-24 we awarded more than $4.8 million to our Areas of Care, with charitable spending of more than $10.8 million, making this the most impactful year in our 40-year history.
Thank you for helping us make this our most impactful year to date.
WOMEN & CHILDREN’S HEALTH CARE
Healthcare Excellence:
The RETCAM Envision™
With 9 research positions funded and 8 pieces of equipment awarded in this area this year, we’re ensuring that our hospital is at the leading-edge and focused on constantly evolving to provide patients of all ages with the very best care, right here at home.
awarded
The Regional’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NNICU) is a place of hope and miracles. Led by a multidisciplinary team, the NNICU provides round-the clock care for newborns who need special attention and services.
Thanks to donors like you, the NNICU team received a new diagnostic tool this year: the RETCAM Envision™, a state-of-the-art camera system. This piece of equipment tests for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in infants born earlier than 32 weeks or who weigh less than 1250 grams at birth. ROP is a potentially devastating eye disease that occurs when a baby’s retinas don’t fully develop in the weeks following birth. If left untreated, ROP can lead to blindness.
Before our NNICU department received this equipment, these fragile and vulnerable infants and their families had to travel to Moncton or Fredericton’s NNICUs by ambulance to receive this important test several times during their care, with some families needing to go every 1-2 weeks for months.
Having this equipment at our hospital ensures that even our youngest patients are receiving the very best care, right here at home and keeps ambulances free for more urgent calls.
The first trip Willow took was not to go home from the hospital with me but to travel by ambulance with a nurse to have this testing completed. Knowing this test is now available at our local hospital means so much to my family and me – I’m grateful that other families won’t have to make that trip.
—Dylan Humphrey, grateful patient and mother of baby Willow, pictured.
babies cared for in the NNICU in 2023
days, average length of stay
average round-trip kms saved thanks to this new piece of equipment
Cardiac care
Cardiac Care:
Two New Heart-Lung Machines
Your support is ensuring that the NB Heart Centre is equipped with the latest equipment to care for their patients as well as ensuring patients have access to programs as they return to their daily lives after a cardiac event.
awarded
This year we were able to award 2 new heart-lung machines for the NB Heart Centre thanks to the generous support of our 2024 Love Your Hospital Radio-thon donors, friends in the community and community supported events like Vito's Lasagna Day.
A heart-lung machine is a critical life-saving piece of equipment required during bypass surgery to clear blocked heart valves in patients like Diane. It does just as its name implies. It acts as your heart and lungs to oxygenate and circulate your blood while surgeons work to repair the heart. Thank you for helping us bring the latest cutting-edge technology to our cardiac team.
I can tell you, having worked in some large centers… we offer everything and more that needs to be offered here in New Brunswick and it's the support of donors of the foundation that make that possible.
— Dr. Brent McGrath, Interventional Cardiologist
surgeries per year
Atlantic Canadians served by the NB Heart Centre
donations made in support of 12th annual Love Your Hospital Radio-thon
PATIENT EXPERIENCE & ACCESS
Cancer Care:
Cancer Survivorship Program
Patient support programs provide the little things that have an immediate impact on improving the patient experience, both with comfort and care and giving patients access to services and items they may not be able to otherwise.
awarded
Through collaborative efforts with best-in-class partners, the team at Horizon Health Network has been working diligently to expand and evolve this vital program in Saint John to offer more holistic support, in addition to the beloved Stay Strong program, all thanks to an incredible leadership gift of $2 million from the late Arthur Irving, Sandra and Sarah Irving, as well as the Arthur L. Irving Family Foundation and Irving Oil. Their commitment to this area of care reminds our health care providers, our patients, and their families that there is a community of support to help them survive and thrive after cancer.
These sessions were very informative as well as being interactive, relaxing, uplifting and well executed. Such positivity. I know this program will be well received by future participants and will help each one on the road to recovery.
—Marilyn Underwood, grateful patient
patients and their families supported
saw improved outcomes
accredited programs offered
Learn more:
Annual giving honour roll
Our Heartfelt thanks
We couldn’t do it without our board of directors.
Meet the leaders guiding our way:
The Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation is honoured to recognize leadership supporters whose cumulative contributions between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024 have had a significant impact on patient care at our hospital and across the province. Donors receive recognition on the total pledge amount in the year the pledge is received.
A message from our board chair
On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I extend our deepest gratitude to all our donors for their unwavering support this past year. Your generosity enables us to continue our vital work in advancing healthcare excellence and enhancing the well-being of patients and our communities. Each contribution, no matter the size, plays a critical role in helping us achieve our mission. We are profoundly grateful for your trust and commitment to our cause.
—Jim Mowbray,Board Chair
Learn more about our year by reviewing our audited financial statements.
Endowments
Thank you to our endowment fund supporters who have created a lasting legacy to support excellence in health care for years to come.
An endowment fund is like a savings account for a charity – the gifts given by the endowment fund supporters are invested, and only the earnings from those investments are used to support healthcare programming.
endowed funds
total granted this year
total value of endowment
Some of the gains realized on these investments helped us take the weight off the surgical team at the NB Heart Centre, with the purchase of 2 Rampart machines