Through its production of The Last Romance this winter, Miracle Theatre surpassed its fundraising goal and donated $52,144.12 to Spirit of the North for its Breast Imaging Centre.
Director Ted Price and Producer Anne Laughlin were initially aiming to raise $50,000 for the cancer-fighting facility through ticket sales, sponsorships, concession sales, and intermission raffles.
The two have personal ties to cancer. Laughlin was diagnosed with blood cancer more than two years ago. Additionally, around the time of their initial production announcement in October 2016, Price recalls a dinner party he and Laughlin attended where three of the six people were battling the illness. Half a year later, he says it’s become even more personal.
“Since then a fourth one has died of cancer. He was diagnosed after that dinner party and he died very, very quickly. Everywhere you look people are fighting cancer.”
Once doors opening in February, support from the community came pouring in. Laughlin says play-goers filled the bleachers then looked for new ways to help out.
“We got cold calls from individuals in the community that wanted to be a part of this. Not only did they just offer out of the blue but then we had people who came to the show and when they left said ‘this is such a great thing for this community. When are you going to do another one, and can I be a part of it?’” she recalls, “It fostered more people wanting to help and so we’re will really gratified that this endeavor brought out the best in people.”
The Breast Imaging Centre will be on the fourth floor at UHNBC. The province government is providing essential equipment and Spirit of the North is raising $500,000 to complete the suite. CEO Judy Neiser says the facility will help northerners with quick and accurate analysis.
“We know that wait times (for test results) end up being hard on people. It ends up interfering with your day-to-day life and so hopefully, what this does is, once there’s been an actual diagnosis, it will speed up the time between a diagnosis and maybe finding out it’s is a false positive,” she says, “or potentially finding out that there is something even more suspicious and leading to treatment.”
The centre is currently under renovation and is scheduled to open in October.
As for Laughlin and Price, they’re in the very infant stages of the next Miracle Theatre production.
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