The Royal Inland Hospital Foundation is grateful to announce the inauguration of Shane and Andrea Doan as Honorary Chairs of the Together We Rise campaign in support of the Royal Inland Hospital’s new Patient Care Tower and Phase II site renovations. The couple has contributed a generous gift towards the campaign as a way to give back and to help the RIH Foundation achieve its $35 million fundraising goal.

“We are extremely grateful to Andrea and Shane for taking on the Together We Rise Tower Campaign honorary chair roles. Their involvement and commitment to the success of the public fundraising efforts will go a long way in helping achieve the $35 million dollar goal for both phases of the project,” shared Jim Reynolds, Campaign Cabinet Chair.

Shane Doan from Halkirk, Alberta spent his teenage years in Kamloops playing for the Blazers when they won the Western Hockey League Memorial Cup in 1994 and 1995 and is known as an NHL All Star who was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets. His wife Andrea was raised in Kamloops, had an early interest in photography and feels connected to the medical community through a best friend who is a practicing nurse at Royal Inland Hospital. Their love story began while attending high school in Kamloops. They married on June 21, 1997.

Together with Shane and their four children, Andrea loves to return to Kamloops and to the surrounding region where many of their family and friends still live. Through their strong connection to the community, the couple believes that the new Patient Care Tower is exactly what Kamloops needs to keep pace with the complex needs of our growing and aging population and to accommodate the demand for specialized, interdisciplinary care within the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap health service area.

“Having Shane and Andrea as ambassadors, means the Campaign can continue to reach heights we could have only dreamed of. It’s so exciting to feel the love from so far away through the Doan’s connection to Kamloops,” said Heidi Coleman, RIH Foundation CEO.

“Hearing about the maternal and child services offering spacious private rooms, the new expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), updated Pediatric Department, and the inpatient and outpatient child and adolescent mental health services speaks to me because it is not until you have a child with an injury, that you really understand and appreciate the care you receive. When staff feel supported and have the equipment and resources they need, it gives everybody such a reassuring and uplifting feeling,” shared Andrea Doan.

The couple has relied on the services of Royal Inland Hospital on multiple occasions over the course of their lives and want to inspire others to give to the campaign. “During my junior hockey career and on a few occurrences throughout Andrea’s pregnancies, the hospital is something we have both used and it is a huge part of the community,” says Shane Doan. “When it comes to our friends and family, the Royal Inland Hospital has made an immense impact on the lives of many.”

Featuring private, single-patient rooms, each with their own washroom, the RIH Patient Care Tower will modernize the RIH campus with a new main hospital entrance, as well as services including child and adolescent mental health services, new operating rooms, a mental health and substance use inpatient unit, a roof-top helipad and more. Construction of the Patient Care Tower Phase II begins in 2022 and will include the renovation and expansion to the emergency department, post anesthetic recovery unit, pediatric unit and the morgue.

“With support from the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation, the local community and wider region, the new Patient Care Tower will soon come to fruition, bringing new patient care spaces and innovative state-of-the-art technology,” says Interior Health RIH executive director Tracey Rannie. “This major investment will benefit all patients and families who use Royal Inland Hospital throughout the Thompson Cariboo region.”

Today, Shane is the Chief Hockey Development Officer with the Coyotes and remains a part franchise owner of the Kamloops Blazers. Shane and Andrea bring to the table an array of experience supporting causes they are passionate about.

Having been awarded a community leadership award in their hometown of Phoenix, the Doan’s are currently involved with an organization called Hope Kids, which provides services and activities for children with terminal illnesses; visiting young patients at Phoenix Children’s Hospital and leading the “Recchi-Doan Charity Classic” golf tournament, which has raised more than $500,000 for charity. No matter what life has in store, home is where the heart is, and a piece of their heart will always remain in Kamloops.