The University of Alberta Hospital is getting a major assist from Wayne Gretzky, as the Great One offers his time and $99,000 of his money to help raise funds for expanding the hospital’s brain centre.
The hockey legend will serve as honorary chair of the hospital’s Brain Centre Campaign, the University Hospital Foundation announced on Tuesday. In addition, No. 99’s $99,000 donation will go toward expanding the overcrowded brain centre so that the hospital can bring all of its patients and experts together under one roof.
Gretzky says he’s proud to be involved with the initiative in light of the health struggles of his father, Walter. A brain aneurysm plunged the elder Gretzky into a coma back in 2001, and he has since been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease – a disorder that affects the nervous system.
“We aren’t aware of things until something happens within your family,” Gretzky told reporters on Tuesday. “I never knew what a brain aneurysm was until my dad had a brain aneurysm.”
Approximate one in four people live with a brain injury, and the brain centre is currently over capacity due to issues such as strokes and traumatic injuries.
Gretzky will be part of the Brain Centre Campaign drive to build the new facility, so patients can have greater access to some of the cutting-edge technologies the hospital has added in recent years.
“It’s time for it to be redeveloped,” said Joyce Mallman Law, president of the U of A Hospital Foundation. “It’s over 30 years old and standards of care have changed. We have more people living in our city.”
“We have a lot of the technology, we just don’t have the space yet,” pediatric neurosurgeon Keith Aronyk told CTV Edmonton.
Gretzky says he’s just glad he could be part of the effort. “If I can lend a helping hand and be a small part of it, that’s easy for me to do.”
