Thanks to community support, CHEO’s Massage Therapy Program helps meet the needs of children and youth receiving cancer treatments. This specialized form of therapy can lower stress, ease tension and pain, reduce anxiety and help make patients feel more physically and emotionally relaxed. Last year, 59 patients received services in over 229 massage sessions. For children suffering from the side effects of their cancer treatment, donors help CHEO offer therapeutic massage therapy to help alleviate some of the pain and distress they experience.

When families don’t know where to turn, they often visit the Emergency Department to seek help. Many Emergency Department visits at CHEO occur overnight, when fewer trained mental health clinicians are available. The donor-funded 24/7 Child and Youth Counsellor (CYC) positions, which are part of the Mental Health Emergency Department team, provide around-the-clock direct care and crisis de-escalation to patients and families, conduct Emergency Department mental health assessments and connect patients and families with other care teams in the mental health community.   

For the last couple of years, close to one third of patients seen by CYCs were evaluated between 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. Providing children and youth with mental health support at all hours is critical to help staff identify patients with co-occurring mental health and substance use challenges and to develop the capacity to address substance and addictions issues.  

Overnight coverage for CYCs is the result of generous donor funding. Overnight staffing on the Crisis Team continues to be essential to supporting timely responses at night, reducing the length of stay in the Emergency Department for high need families, and preventing overnight holdovers.

Staff look for ways to support families in need though financial assistance so that parents can be their child’s foremost support without having to deal with unsurmountable financial pressures.  

Over the course of 2023, 384 parking passes were renewed and 103 families who experienced a financial crisis as a result of their child’s treatment received financial assistance.    

Additionally, thanks to donor generosity, nine families received funds to support funeral expenses and nine families were provided travel assistance to help cover out-of-pocket costs while travelling out of Ottawa to access medical care.    

These examples are just a few ways your dollars have offered compassion and transformed the lives of families.

Researchers at the CHEO Research Institute and The Ottawa Hospital have treated the first infant in an innovative clinical trial of a cell therapy that aims to prevent very premature babies from developing a chronic lung disease called bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). This is the first trial of its kind in the world.  

Very premature babies need extra oxygen and mechanical intervention to breathe, but this damages their lungs, causing BPD. Premature babies have smaller and weaker lungs that can’t send as much oxygen to their growing brains. The lack of oxygen during brain development can lead to learning disabilities, or problems walking, hearing and seeing. Approximately 1,000 babies in Canada develop BPD every year. Until now there has been no hope for a cure or treatment. 

Dr. Bernard Thébaud, a neonatologist and Senior Scientist at the CHEO Research Institute and The Ottawa Hospital, and his team previously discovered that cells from the umbilical cord tissue, called mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), can heal lung injury and prevent BPD in newborn rodents. Since then, the team has been working tirelessly to bring this novel therapy to babies and their families through clinical trials.   

CHEO Foundation donors play a major role in supporting innovative research. Thank you for improving lives today and changing the future of care.  

“This is a critical step towards a potential breakthrough therapy that could help premature babies in Canada and around the world.” - Dr. Thébaud