News & Announcements

20 Million Reasons To Be Thankful!

June 2023: the St. Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation has reached a 20-million-dollar milestone!

Meghan MacGillivray Case, Chair of the St Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation is pleased to announce that the St. Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation has reached a 20-million-dollar milestone in under 10 years!

In 2016 the Foundation launched the St. Martha’s and You… the Time is Now campaign, to provide a dependable financial base from which they can support the hospital now and, in the future, with the goal of reaching 20-million in pledges by 2026.

“The fact that we have reached this milestone in less than ten years speaks to the quality of health care that St. Martha's provides, and the generosity of our community", says MacGillivray Case.  “We live in an incredibly special place, with incredible supporters.  Together, we can make a difference today and for generations to come." 

Past Chair of the “St. Martha’s and You – The Time is Now” Campaign, Steve Smith extends his thanks on behalf of the team to every person who has given to the “St. Martha’s and You – The Time is Now” campaign. “You have and will make a difference in the present and future health of all of us.”

John MacLellan Legacy Gift

April 2022: The late John MacLellan, lifetime resident of Antigonish, gifted the St. Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation with a $1.68 million legacy donation.  

“This gift from Mr. MacLellan is the largest single gift received in the Foundation’s history—it is truly extraordinary” said Meghan MacGillivray-Case, Chair of the SMRHF. “We are so grateful to John for his donation. Through this donation the Foundation will ensure John’s legacy of community service will live on through our St. Martha’s and You… Endowment Fund and continue to support St. Martha’s Regional Hospital for years to come” said MacGillivray-Case.

Many will know John from his long-time career as a local taxi driver in Antigonish. John started his career as a driver with Zinck's Taxi. He continued driving taxi for other companies in Town and had over 60 years of service in the industry.  John took pride in his job and always dressed in his trademark blue uniform and cap. He was recognized by the Town of Antigonish with a plaque for his 60+ years of dedicated service to his community and awarded the Tourism Nova Scotia Pineapple Award in 2011, which recognizes an industry person who gives exceptional service beyond tourism standards.

In his honor, the St. Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation (SMRHF) and Nova Scotia Health have renamed the palliative care unit at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, the John MacLellan Palliative Care Unit.

“We wanted to recognize the importance of this donation to St. Martha’s” said Kathy Chisholm, Site Lead for St. Martha’s Regional Hospital. “Mr. MacLellan’s generosity will have a lasting impact on St. Martha’s Regional Hospital and our community”.

The $1.68 million-dollar gift brings the Foundation significantly closer to its capital campaign goal of $20 million dollars by 2026. The funds from the capital campaign go towards equipment purchases for St. Martha’s Regional Hospital that provide enhanced care to patients from Antigonish, Guysborough, Inverness, and Richmond Counties. Funds are also used to support education and research for St. Martha’s staff. These investments in equipment and innovation have helped position St. Martha’s Regional Hospital as a teaching hospital and a community of choice for physicians, nurses and technicians looking to come to our area.

Special Delivery from the Knights of Columbus

March 2022: The St. Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation accepted a $5,000 cheque from Knights of Columbus to support the purchase of new medical equipment for the Children and Women’s Health Unit to support some of our smallest patients, our newborns.

We are so grateful for their continued support of the St. Martha’s!

Sobey Foundation’s Transformative Gift to St. Martha’s

In September 2018, the Sobey Foundation made a transformative $1 million gift in support of cardiorespiratory care at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital. The Sobey Foundation gift will improve the quality in acute and chronic care for heart and lung diseases.

Since receiving the funds from the Sobey Foundation, we have purchased enhanced equipment for the echo machine that has allowed staff and physicians to offer new services and studies including: bubble studies, stress echo testing, transesophageal echoes and contrast studies.

In 2021, the Foundation committed to purchasing a new cardiac stress test system to help the cardiorespiratory team offer high quality care to the residents of the quad-counties.