Honey and Barry Sherman Legacy Foundation donates $1M to SHN

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The Scarborough Health Network Foundation has been given a $1 million donation from the Honey and Barry Sherman Legacy Foundation for healthcare in Scarborough.

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“For over 40 years, my parents, Honey and Barry were committed philanthropists,” the couple’s daughter Alexandra Krawczyk, who leads the Honey and Barry Legacy Foundation, said in a statement released Saturday. “They believed that they had a duty to help others by focusing on organizations that improve the lives of people.”

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“I am honoured to continue their legacy with this gift to support equitable, accessible healthcare for people living in Scarborough and the surrounding communities,” she added.

Billionaire Barry Sherman, 75 — the founder of generic drug giant Apotex — and his wife, Honey, 70, were found slain in their North York home in 2017.

The double murder remains under investigation and, so far, no arrests have been made.

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This donation will allow SHN to build the new Honey and Barry Sherman Legacy Foundation Interventional Radiology Suite in the state-of-the-art Diagnostic Imaging Department at the hospital, which is slated to open later this year.

“We are so grateful to the Honey and Barry Sherman Legacy Foundation for their transformational gift,” President and CEO of the SHN Foundation Alicia Vandermeer said.

“The philanthropy of Honey and Barry Sherman is profound, and we’re honoured to be part of their ongoing legacy,” she said. “This donation will help our talented healthcare teams diagnose and treat various medical conditions in the Honey and Barry Sherman Legacy Foundation Interventional Radiology Suite, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke.”

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Not every procedure needs to be performed in a operating room under general anesthesia.

Interventional radiology can be used for biopsies, to diagnose cancer, remove tumours, prevent kidney failure, and provide life-saving diagnoses in minimally invasive ways.

By avoiding surgery under anesthesia, patients have less pain and fewer complications.

This also frees the operating room space for more complex operations.

SHN says as of now diagnostic imaging is in five locations at SHN’s General Hospital, impacting the patient experience.

The new Diagnostic Imaging Department will combine all imaging units into one central location, growing to over 36,000 square feet and reducing wait times for critical interventional radiology by 50%.

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