A local couple's generosity will result in a new clinical research area at St. Joseph's Parkwood Institute that will try to help people retain their mobility throughout their lives.
Bill and Lynne Gray have made what hospital officials say is a "historic" donation of $7.5 million, the largest gift ever received by St. Joseph’s Health Care London. The money will be used to support The Gray Centre for Mobility & Activity.
“Transformational change happens when people in our community step forward to make it possible,” Michelle Campbell, president and CEO, St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation, said in a news release issued Friday. “This remarkable donation will enable Parkwood Institute to become a leading organization for rehabilitative care in the country, and it would not have happened without the philanthropic leadership and vision of Bill and Lynne Gray.”
According to officials at St. Joseph's, the new centre will help patients with musculoskeletal and neurological diseases, frail seniors, as well as those with mental illness who have mobility challenges. It will have the latest technology and health care equipment to help people "maintain a level of activity that promotes and sustains independence."
“Parkwood Institute is ideally suited to lead the establishment of the Gray Centre for Mobility & Activity,” said Dr. Tim Doherty, chair/chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at St. Joseph’s. “The Centre will enable researchers, clinicians and community partners to share knowledge and test new solutions to the problems of mobility and activity across multiple patient populations.”
