Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC) Foundation held its annual banquet Friday night, celebrating 30 years of Palliative Care programming.
 
Foundation Chairperson Debra Enns shares the history and importance of palliative care to not only Boundary Trails, but its predecssor hospitals in Winkler and Morden. The program started in 1987 at the Morden District Hospital and 1991 at the Winkler Bethel Hospital.
 
"The actual program started in the two separate hospitals, and the auxiliaries contributed to them. When Boundary Trails came about, both of those auxiliaries handed over the reigns to the Foundation."
 
For 15 years the program has been run by the foundation, increasing from four beds to nine.
 
The goal was to improve quality of life and ease the pain of the emotional distress in terminal illness patients by providing social, emotional, spiritual, and physical support.  
 
Enns says she was amazed at how much support was shown from the community, with the banquet hopefully raising nearly half of the $150,000 budgeted by the foundation for the Palliative Care program. The final numbers are still being calculated.
 

Money raised at the fundraiser will hopefully cover about 50 percent of the $150,000 Palliative Care program

The guest speaker for the evening was Sheldon Kennedy. Kennedy is known for his eight-year career in the NHL, winning a Memorial Cup, and a World Junior Gold Medal, but is most well known for finding the courage to share his story of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his major junior hockey coach.
 
Kennedy is the Lead Director of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre in Calgary, offering services to victims of child abuse.
 
During the evening he shared the story of the abuse he suffered from his coach, and how he has been able to help kids who have not gained their voice.
 
"One of the biggest things, when people go through this, is they feel all alone, and that’s never changed. I think we're starting to get there now. I never did this to get famous, everyone has a role and my role is to keep this issue at the forefront and center, long enough for change to happen."
 
Kennedy says it’s not about the incident, it’s about how it impacts the people who have been abused, adding that’s where you need to focus, and that’s where you need to help.