The town of Kapuskasing donated $50,000 to the Sam Bruno PET Scan Fund on Thursday to help the hospital purchase the $3.5 million machine.
During a press conference Nov. 8, Tannys Laughren, executive director of the Northern Cancer Foundation, said the fund had met that goal thanks to two anonymous donations of $500,000 each.
But that total was contingent on commitments a number of organizations had already made, including the $50,000 donation from the town of Kapuskasing.
“It's overwhelming when you have a community of 8,000 (people) making a commitment of $50,000 -- that is huge money,” said Brenda Tessaro, a member of the Sam Bruno PET Scan Fund Committee.
Kapuskasing Mayor Alan Spacek was in Sudbury on Thursday for the cheque presentation, and said the PET-CT scanner at Health Sciences North will benefit all of northeastern Ontario.
“The reality is that we do have a lot of our residents who travel out of town to get medical care,” he said. “There's no reason why the residents of Northern Ontario shouldn't have access to the same quality of care that residents elsewhere in Ontario get.”
During the press conference at Health Sciences North on Nov. 8, Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced the province would contribute $4.6 million to build a specialized suite for a PET scanner at the hospital.
That announcement was in addition to the previous promise to cover the $1.6 million in annual costs to operate a PET scanner.
Hoskins said the hospital plans to put out a request for proposals for the new PET scanner suite as soon as possible, and said it should take around 12 months to complete.
The suite, which will require extra thick concrete walls to prevent radiation from leaking into other parts of the hospital, will be built on stilts and attached to the hospital's nuclear medicine department on the second floor of the Ramsey Lake Health Centre.
