This holiday season, help keep essential local healthcare close to home
Published 6:00 pm Sunday, December 14, 2025
Through Dec. 31, your gift to the Delta Health and Hospital Foundation will be matched, supporting vital diagnostics and treatment here at home
Regular cancer screening is a key part of many patients’ health journeys, and is key to identifying cancers early on, when they’re more treatable. Other times, screenings can address pre-cancerous issues, before they become malignant.
For local patients like Pete, a screening colonoscopy in his 60s found multiple polyps, including one so large it required laparoscopic surgery to remove. Regular screenings in the years since and have found no more polyps, and Pete remains grateful for the care he received at the Delta Hospital Campus of Care.
“It’s important to get regular screenings done, to avoid life-altering consequences later on,” Pete shares, urging everyone to stay diligent about screenings.
While colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in Canada, with one in 14 men and one in 18 women receiving a diagnosis in their lifetime, with screening and early detection, up to 90 per cent of cases can be successfully treated.
For patients like Lea, who came to Delta Hospital’s Emergency Room last year with what she thought was a persistent flu, the hospital team used a CT scan and colonoscopy to discover a malignant mass, and she was quickly scheduled for surgery. Like Pete, her follow-ups have shown nothing new of concern.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in Canada, however with screening and early detection, up to 90 per cent of cases can be successfully treated.
This holiday season, the Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation is working to expand and modernize the hospital’s endoscopy suite, ensuring medical teams have the tools they need to provide patients with life-saving screening and treatment, close to home.
And thanks to two generous local families, up to a total of $45,000 in donations will be matched – donate by midnight, Dec. 31 and your gift will have double the impact. You’ll also receive a tax receipt for your 2025 tax return.
“The response from our community to this holiday appeal has been so heartwarming. It’s clear how much we all care about having outstanding healthcare right here at home. But we still need your help,” says Lisa Hoglund, CEO of the Delta Health and Hospital Foundation.
How to donate:
“The community’s support today is absolutely crucial,” Hoglund says. “Our endoscopy suite is simply too small to keep up with the needs of our growing community, and for every day a person waits for a procedure like a colonoscopy, their anxiety grows.
“As Lea and Pete’s stories demonstrate so well, having access to timely diagnostic screening can be the difference between life and death.”
Beyond updating the endoscopy suite, priority equipment on the hospital’s 2025 Holiday Wishlist include breast cancer surgery probes that help surgeons find and fully remove a patient’s cancer, and Olympic Pediatric Scopes that are more comfortable for children, seniors, and smaller framed adults during their screenings.
Every moment counts when a patient is waiting for a diagnosis. And every gift makes a tangible difference in their journey. Learn more at dhchfoundation.ca/holidaywishlist
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