The Living Sky Casino was the perfect place to be a healthcare provider yesterday, with wine, cheese, and inspirational speaking from a renowned author making it a night to remember.

The Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation has hosted a nurse appreciation event, with some help from a grant donated by the RBC Foundation. Over 125 people attended the soiree, which featured some classy charcuterie boards, along with perfect pairing wines.

The evening’s entertainment was motivational speaking from an author who has written four books on her philosophy. She is a recipient of the Saskatchewan Women Entrepreneur of the Year award, and a member of the prestigious Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame.

Regina resident Darci Lang has been speaking for 30 years and has often shared her inspiration with Swift Current.

“I believe we have this big imaginary magnifying glass out in front of us in our lives, and we have a choice of what we focus it on, what I call the 90 per cent,” Lang explained. “It’s been a difficult time in healthcare these last few years, there have been a lot of what I call again 10% things we can’t control, and these heroes took care of everybody. Tonight is a celebration of them, recalibrating and refocusing on how amazing they were and getting back to a different kind of normal again.”

A small gift was also given to each attendee; one of Darci Lang’s renowned self-help books, and a plant from Wildflower Florist in Swift Current. The gift bags were presented to the patrons at the end of the evening.

Crystal Imrie, the communications and development coordinator for the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation, helped to make this first-time event a reality.

“It’s been really good; We have about 125 people here, we did open it up to the public but about 90% are still nurses, so we’re really happy to see all of them out,” stated Imrie. “We’re so excited at the foundation to have Darcy come and speak to the nurses and have this opportunity to put this on with the RBC Foundation. There’s never enough time or money it seems to recognize nurses, so we’re so happy we could do this for them.”

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The Pharmasave Radiothon for Healthcare blew past its goal as support poured in from across the southwest the past two days.

Their goal of $150,000 was eclipsed by a record-setting $172,493 leaving the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation overjoyed.

“It was the hard work of all of our staff to get this put on and it was the hard work and the generous donations from southwestern Saskatchewan that made this happen,” Chris Martens, the executive director of the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation, said. “We blew it [our goal] out of the water.”

Funds raised at this year’s event will help the Swift Current-based non-profit purchase a thulium fibre laser system for the Cypress Regional Hospital. The new piece of equipment will cost $150,000 and will help local physicians including Cypress Health Region Urologist Dr. Garcia.

“I’m really thankful for the effort here to be able to get this technology, there are a lot of benefits for it,” he said. “I will probably be the highest volume user of this technology but there is definitely some applicability outside of urology.”

The two procedures the system will allow Dr. Garcia to improve services on are kidney stones and small bladder tumours. He predicts he treats about 40-50 kidney stone issues per year and about half a dozen bladder tumours annually.

“The laser fibre is very efficient energy to the stone so much more complete destruction of the stone,” he said. “I think it opens the door to tackle larger stones that would typically need to be sent off to the city.”

Donations of all amounts cascaded consistently throughout yesterday and today but were highlighted by two remarkable gifts. Thursday’s was by the Elmgren Estate for $50,000 and earlier this morning Ted Hanlon and the Anluon Foundation contributed $25,000.

“It [the Elmgren donation] really got our Radiothon started off on a strong foot and really set the pace,” he said. “It [the Hanlon donation] really set the pace once again for day two. Our phone lines were constant, our emails kept dinging with donations coming in.”

Swift Current MLA and Saskatchewan Health Minister Everett Hindley applauded the charity for helping the region he represents.

“At some point in each of our lives either ourselves or somebody close to us is going to need to use some of our healthcare services at our local healthcare facility such as in Swift Current and right across southwest Saskatchewan, so it [their work] really does touch all our lives,” Hindley said.

The extra funds raised from the event will be earmarked for a few different projects.

“There are a lot of things that we can certainly utilize that additional funding for,” Martens said. “It will go to a good cause because that’s exactly what the foundation is meant to do get much-needed medical equipment in southwest Saskatchewan.”

In response to Canada’s Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, Swift Current Online encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the Swift Current Online app.