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Elaine Walkom says the magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) machine she helped pay for and bring to Estevan wasn’t her first idea for commemorating her husband Grant, who was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2017.
“If you want the truth, I wanted a street named after my husband and they wouldn’t do it,” Walkom said on Thursday after helping open the new MRI unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
“So I thought, alrighty, where am I going from here? Well, if you’re going to go, go big.”
The MRI machine goes into operation Friday, the result of a massive community effort that saw more than 1,200 donors contribute to the campaign, including individuals, community groups, foundations, businesses and municipal governments, according to the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation.
Those donors raised $6.5 million in 18 months.
Getting an MRI machine to Estevan, a city of about 11,500 in southeast Saskatchewan, wasn’t easy.
In 2023, Walkom, a local businesswoman, approached the provincial Health Ministry with an offer of a $2-million donation to buy the machine and train two technicians to operate it at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
The province initially declined Walkom. The Health Ministry said at the time that it wasn’t feasible without a plan to ensure the machine’s long-term operation.
On Thursday, Walkom cut the ribbon to officially open the new MRI unit. She said it will reduce travel time and stress for people in the Estevan area needing an MRI test, something she experienced herself with Grant.
“We went to a lot of MRIs and PET scans in Saskatoon,” Walkom said. “That was a factor thinking about this. We were on the road so much for diagnostics and that sort of thing.”
As evidenced by the grand opening, the province eventually reversed its initial decision, telling Walkom and the hospital foundation that it would cover the MRI scanner’s operating costs if they could raise $6.5 million to cover the project’s initial cost. They partnered with Emmanuel Health, a Catholic health-care corporation, to make the business case.
That kick-started a community-wide fundraising effort that drew in many donors, such as Jaycee Ross, who donated a steer and inspired local 4-H kids to raise money.
Health Minister Lori Carr said Walkom was integral to getting the MRI.
“I’ve always pushed to get this through,” Carr told reporters in Estevan. “Of course, as we all know, with bureaucracy and approvals and all of that kind of stuff, they think other communities are more important because they have longer wait times. But they didn’t have a donor willing to offer $2.5 million.”
An MRI unit in Estevan will cut down on travel time, provide earlier diagnoses and help recruit and re-train medical staff, according to the hospital foundation.
An MRI scan is a medical test that takes images of the inside of the human body, including organs, bones, muscles and blood vessels.
The Saskatchewan government has decided to move forward with putting an MRI in Estevan. Last March, a private donor offered $2 million to set up MRI services in the southeastern city. The province initially declined the offer, citing the need for a long-term plan for funding and staffing.
There are now 14 MRI scanners in Saskatchewan, according to the province. Until Friday, the closest one to Estevan was in Regina, located about 185 kilometres away.
There’s about 1,000 people in the region on the waiting list for an MRI who will now have access to the one in Estevan, said Amanda Bartlett, director of support services at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
“This is a huge step for the southeast, but also provincially,” Bartlett said. “Some of these exams that we’re going to be doing take the weight off of Regina so they’re able to scan more of their acute patients in the hospital.”
Walkom said she might already have another project in mind: a retirement home in Estevan. For now, she’s thankful the community rallied behind her MRI machine idea.
“Everybody just came together and it became a community effort. We can be especially proud of ourselves because we did this in record time.”
