Miracle Treat Day is coming! Help support SickKids

Dairy Queen hosts its annual Miracle Treat Day tomorrow! That means all proceeds from Blizzard ice cream treats will be donated to Children’s Miracle Network member hospitals.

In Sudbury, the proceeds will go to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, which managed 1,886 visits from 702 Sudbury and region patients in 2013-2014.

Kim Pacan knows first-hand the level of service SickKids, as it's often called, provides for sick children.

When her daughter Meghan was 18 months old she had open-heart surgery at the Toronto hospital.

Her pulmonary artery, which carries blood from the heart to her lungs, was closed and in the wrong place.

Doctors cut the artery and reattached it in the correct part of her chest cavity.

Pacan said her daughter received excellent care at SickKids.

“It's terrible to go through something like this, but you get to realize how kind people can be,” she said.

Meghan, who is now 22 months old and doing very well, also had more minor surgeries when she was younger to open some arteries.

Pacan said that while the care her children have received in Sudbury has been excellent, the hospital is not set up to do major surgeries for children like the one her daughter received.

But her five-year-old son Ethan has a small hole in his heart, and has received all his care in Sudbury.

The hole has not caused any major complications, and he has been able to live like any other healthy child.

Pacan said it was important for her family to support SickKids after her daughter's treatment. Both her children have become local ambassadors for Miracle Treat Day.

“We feel very fortunate to have SickKids and we just want to give back,” Pacan said.

Since starting its Miracle Treat Day in 1984, Dairy Queen has raised more than $100 million to support sick and injured children across North America.

If you can’t purchase a Blizzard Treat but want to support Miracle Treat Day, you can make a donation at any Dairy Queen that will go directly to your local affiliated Children’s Miracle Network member hospital.