Ken Hermann Jr. and five other family members created a fund at the London Community Foundation to help pay for palliative-care training at Parkwood Hospital and programs at other centres. They donated $30,000 and the fund has now grown to $50,000 thanks to more donations.Shaun Best / Reuters/Reuters
The donors: The Hermann family
The gift: $50,000 and climbing
The cause: To fund palliative-care training and projects
When Ken Hermann died from cancer in 2014 at Parkwood hospital in London, Ont., his family began talking about how to improve palliative care.
"We got together and said we're going to start a fund to fill some of the gaps we saw at Parkwood," recalled Ken Hermann Jr. from his home in Rockwood, Ont., which is near Guelph.
Mr. Hermann Jr. and five other family members created a fund at the London Community Foundation to help pay for palliative-care training at Parkwood and programs at other centres. They donated $30,000 and the fund has now grown to $50,000 thanks to more donations. Some of the money will be used to send eight Parkwood staff on a training course.
Mr. Hermann Jr., a retired sales executive, said his father had been an advocate for improved palliative care for years and he'd be proud of what the family has already accomplished. "Dad's smiling at us right now," said Mr. Hermann Jr. who has also joined the Parkwood Veterans Care Palliative Care Committee. "He's probably very, very pleased with what we're doing and that's gratifying."
Paul Waldie