When veteran paramedic Don Sharpe attended the Airdrie Health Foundation’s Light up the Night fundraising gala in September, he was so moved by Michelle Bates’ story that he asked ‘Why not us, why not here in Cochrane?’
The idea took root, and just a few weeks later, the Cochrane EMS Crisis Community Action Group (CAG) is launching a proposal to provide better health care in Cochrane and district, through the birth of the Cochrane health foundation.
The main goal of the new foundation would be to establish 24-hour emergency care at the Cochrane Urgent Care Centre.
“Don met Michelle at the gala, and came back to our meeting, and said, ‘Why isn’t our urgent care open 24/7?’” said CAG chair Brian Winter.
So, the group decided to go the same route as their counterparts in Airdrie, who formed a health foundation in 2010.
“We decided to spread our wings and form the Cochrane Health Foundation,” Winter said.
Winter said they hope someone like a retired doctor, or someone with a financial background – or both – will come forward to lead the charge.
The CAG asks all business leaders, politicians, and service groups that want to help provide the best health care possible for Cochrane to come and take part in the discussions. Their first meeting is open to the public Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.
The goal at the end of the evening will be to ask for volunteers to form the Cochrane health foundation board of trustees, including community members and local health care professionals.
The guest speaker for the evening will be the aforementioned Michelle Bates, a co-founding member of the Airdrie Health Foundation.
The Airdrie Health Foundation was established after Bates’s five-year-old son Lane became suddenly ill during the night in 2009. Airdrie had no 24-hour emergency medical care at the time, and the family made the fateful decision to wait until morning before taking Lane to urgent care. But he passed before they could get him in to see his doctor.
A year after Lane's passing, the Bates family was again in need of medical care in the middle of the night for one of their daughters. This time, they needed to travel at night to Didsbury Hospital during a massive snow storm.
The two instances led Bates to become an impassioned advocate for improved health-care services in the community. She co-founded the Airdrie Health Foundation to prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies. Beginning as a grassroots organization in 2010, the foundation was established as a registered charity in 2013.
After years of work and lobbying the provincial government, the Airdrie Health Foundation realized their goal: establishing 24-hour urgent care services for Airdrie in 2017.
Other goals of the CAG would be to register the Cochrane health foundation as a charitable organization and raise funds for health and wellness priorities.
The inaugural meeting is planned for Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 73 George Fox Trail.
