Volunteer Breathe Ambassadors pictured: (Back Row from left) Karen Webb and Donna McDonald Double Lung Transplant Recipients, Brenda Martin Caregiver, Jenna Brewer Double Lung Transplant Recipient, (Front Row From Left) Nicole Nelson and Moe Martin Double Lung Transplant Recipients  

Second Breath is a campaign inspired by The Lung Association Saskatchewan volunteer Breathe Ambassadors who want to help living donors have that important conversation with their loved ones about organ donation. Proceeds from this campaign will fund the Caring Breaths Financial Assistance Program. Caring Breaths provides financial assistance to those experiencing financial burden because of their lung disease. As an example, we know that those who require a lung transplant will need to leave the province and travel to Edmonton or another transplant center with a caregiver for up to 3 months. In that period, the homes in Saskatchewan must be maintained and all additional costs for accommodation, travel, food and incidentals incurred out of province must be met by the patient and caregiver, these costs can be as high as $20,000.   We do not believe the patients must choose between suffering illness or suffering financial hardship, we want to help and hope you do to. Caring Breaths will help all patients living with all types of lung disease.

Please consider donating your gift of life and your gift of hope today, you will help those who need our help the most to get their second breath.

We would like to send a huge shout out to the management and staff from Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) Saskatoon who not only sponsored the Breathe Wellness Care Kits for patients living with lung disease, the PwC staff team volunteered to stuff all 500 bags making them ready to get into the hands of those who need them! This little bag of hugs includes items such as Kleenex, lozenges, hand sanitizer, lip salve and other items that make breathing easier. Thank you PwC for caring!

We would also like to thank all of our extraordinary community partners whose generous donation of gifts and time helped us fill all 500 Breathe Wellness Care Bags. Thank you Culligan Saskatoon , Prairie Oxygen, RANA Respiratory Care Group, RS Property Maintenance, Sobeys & Dollarama. Your gift will have a great impact and means a lot!

Pictured: Dr. Mark Fenton respirologist and researcher College of Medicine receiving the SHRF Excellence Award

Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation’s (SHRF) annual Santé Awards Evening celebrates health research excellence in Saskatchewan. The event is a chance to recognize researchers for their contributions to a vibrant culture of health research and innovation, raise awareness of the outstanding health research happening in Saskatchewan and foster and strengthen connections with the research community, partners and other provincial supporters.

At this year’s Awards evening, SHRF highlighted our ongoing partnership and included three speakers from The Lung Association family: Dr. Mark Fenton, Karen Davis, Volunteer Board Chair and Nicole Nelson patient advocate and double lung transplant patient and each spoke to the importance of research. Dr. Mark Fenton was also a recipient of the SHRF Excellence Award as recognition for being the highest ranked applicant from the Ideas that Inspire research grant that was co-funded by the Lung Association and SHRF.

We focused, we breathed and we definitely played hard! The 2018 WHL Lung All-Stars program wrapped up with the final sponsored game night on December 14th with the Swift Current Broncos. This year, The Lung Association partnered with three WHL teams in Saskatchewan, the Saskatoon Blades, Regina Pats and Swift Current Broncos, to teach youth about the importance of making healthy lung choices. In total, almost 6,400 students from kindergarten to grade 8 learned facts about staying active and saying no to tobacco and pledged to have happy healthy lungs.

Thank you to all the teams, students, volunteers and supporters who promised to look after their lungs and who helped raised money to support lung health initiatives in our province.  

The Lung Association, Saskatchewan is pleased to introduce the Inspired Breathing Conference 2019 that will be held in Saskatoon at the Saskatoon Inn on May 24 & 25, 2019.

This inaugural conference will bring together patient voices, family physicians, respiratory specialists, allied respiratory health care professionals, and respiratory educators to learn together and to network with one another. This conference offers content that is diverse, current, and of value to all delegates. With its mix of plenary sessions, keynote speakers and participative workshops presented by experts and key opinion leaders in their respective fields of specialty, this professional education conference includes something for everyone.

As a member of the Canadian Free Wills Network, The Lung Association, Saskatchewan is pleased to offer a free Will or an update to an existing Will to our supporters. We are able to do so through the generosity of participating lawyers across Saskatchewan.

This is your chance to have a simple Will prepared and if you wish to do so, include a legacy gift to The Lung Association, Saskatchewan. 

Having an up-to-date Will prepared by a lawyer is the only way to ensure that your future wishes will be carried out as you intended. It is also a wonderful way to advance lung health in the province and support many future generations to breathe easier.

For more information please contact Renata Huyghebaert at Renata.Huyghebaert@sk.lung.ca or call 1-306-667-3045