On October 4th, Scottie — the young girl who inspired Scotland’s Yard — turns three! In celebration of this milestone, we wanted to share more about the ways this incredible group is enhancing children’s cancer care in Waterloo Region, with the help of our leaders at Grand River Hospital, and how you can join them in pursuit of their mission so more children like Scottie can be cared for right here in our community. You can also shop our new Scotland's Yard collection in celebration of her third birthday!

Led by a group of dedicated community members, we are currently in the first phase of Scotland’s Yard. This phase will see our community come together to raise funds in support of additional medical equipment that will give us the capability to perform more diagnostic procedures and treatments locally. Their efforts will also support resources that promote personalized and holistic care, such as a children’s cancer careship fund that will be used to help local families cope with the financial burden of having a child undergoing cancer treatment.

As our population continues to grow, we are also exploring long-term opportunities to enhance local pediatric cancer care — our hospital leaders are currently conducting a review of population to determine when in time our population size could allow us to support a specialized children’s cancer program, and they have also begun to examine what would be required from a Ministry of Health perspective to establish this type of program in the future.

While some children’s cancer care already takes place in our community at the POGO Satellite Clinic at Grand River Hospital, these clinics are only equipped to offer certain types of services, and local children still need to be diagnosed at and have their treatment plan developed, monitored and modified by a health care team from one of the province’s specialized children’s cancer programs, the closest of which are at hospitals in London, Hamilton and Toronto.

At any given time, about 200 children and their families are experiencing a cancer journey in our community alone, so the more aspects of children’s cancer care we can make available right here, the better we can make the experience for every child and family who needs it.

Celebrate Scottie’s third birthday, and join the Scotland’s Yard team in enhancing cancer care for all of the kids and families in our community. Visit scotlandsyard.ca to shop Scottie's birthday collection in support of Grand River Hospital!