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Need sparks service expansion at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in Abbotsford

Surrey’s Lumina Cunningham was born with severe Hydrocephalus, a genetic disorder that affects the development of muscles, brain and eyes. She requires 24-hour care and a feeding tube, and has frequent seizures.
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Having the support of Canuck Place – Dave Lede House closer to home has made a big difference to Surrey’s Cunningham family, whose daughter Lumina was born with a serious genetic disorder.

Surrey’s Lumina Cunningham was born with severe Hydrocephalus, a genetic disorder that affects the development of muscles, brain and eyes. She requires 24-hour care and a feeding tube, and has frequent seizures.

Canuck Place has been with the family every step of the way, providing medical respite and symptom management for Lumina and supporting her whole family with care and counselling so they can focus on enjoying their time together.

Now, with expanded inpatient care available at Canuck Place – Dave Lede House in Abbotsford they can access those services closer to home.

“Canuck Place is so wonderful,” said Dwayne, Lumina’s father. “They provide expert clinical care, love and support for families and children like our Lumina, who desperately need such assistance. And now we can access this care closer to home.”

Two decades of pediatric palliative care

For more than 20 years, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice has provided pediatric palliative care for children with life-threatening illnesses and the families who love them in the Fraser Valley and across BC.

This past year Canuck Place provided care and support for over 728 children and families from every corner of BC, with more than 47 per cent from right here in the Fraser Valley.

To answer a growing need, Canuck Place is expanding inpatient clinical care services.

For the past few years, Canuck Place’s second provincial location, Dave Lede House in Abbotsford, has operated much-needed outpatient and community services.

Increased care for the Fraser Valley

In 2018, with donor support, Canuck Place increased in-home clinical consultations and introduced inpatient care at Dave Lede House with medical beds operating on a part-time basis. With a strategic phase-plan, and the support of the Fraser Valley community, they’re inching closer to delivering full-time inpatient care.

This expansion of care will have an immediate, direct impact on families. When a child is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, parents are impacted by the 24-hour care they provide for their child. The very real stresses include financial pressures, relationship challenges, fatigue, distress and increasing acute-care needs that impact mental and physical health and the overall quality of life for the whole family.

Families have access to medical respite care, pain and symptom management, art, music and recreation therapy, end-of-life care, as well as grief, loss and bereavement counselling. At every stage in their journey, Canuck Place is there. All at no cost.

However, it’s only possible with the caring community of donors who support Canuck Place children and families.

Canuck Place raises 60 per cent of its annual operating costs so this exciting increase in services requires donor support to be fully realized and sustained. To learn how you can support the work at Canuck Place – David Lede House and Canuck Place, and families like the Cunninghams, visit canuckplace.org

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Canuck Place Nurse Doreen Landry reads a book to Lumina Cunningham at Canuck Place – Dave Lede House.
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Dwayne Cunningham with his daughter Lumina Cunningham at Canuck Place – Dave Lede House.