Montreal Icons Join Best Care for Life Campaign

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) announced today that Mutsumi Takahashi and Jean Béliveau have agreed to serve as co-chairs of the Best Care for Life Public Campaign, which is needed to help finance its redevelopment on the Glen, Mountain and Lachine campuses. As spokespersons, Ms. Takahashi and Mr. Béliveau will support the MUHC’s efforts to reach out to the Montreal community and its own employees and bring its redevelopment vision to life.

Mutsumi Takahashi, chief news anchor for CTV Montreal, is proud to be taking part in this once-in-a-lifetime community project. “The McGill University Health Centre is an integral part of our city. Over the years, we have all been touched or helped in one way or another by the people in our medical community. I feel this is the least I can do. We all need to get behind this initiative in order to ensure future generations of Montrealers continue to benefit from the best possible care.”

Canadiens’ hockey legend Jean Béliveau is a cancer survivor who received treatment at the McGill University Health Centre. He was similarly enthusiastic about being a public face of this campaign, which aims to raise funds from within the Montreal community to build state-of-the-art hospital and research facilities at the Glen, Mountain and Lachine campuses. “The work being done at the McGill University Health Centre is already world-class, but I know that it will be even better once we help give our doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals the modern campuses that will ultimately benefit all of us,” said Mr. Béliveau.

Campaign chairman John Rae added: “With the start of construction on the Glen scheduled before the year end and work on the Mountain underway, the Best Care for Life Campaign is moving into an exciting new phase. Having distinguished Montrealers such as Mutsumi Takahashi and Jean Béliveau on our team provides a major boost to our fundraising efforts. I have no doubt that they will encourage Montrealers to give generously to the Campaign.”

The Best Care for Life Community Campaign is co-chaired by Dr. Sylvia Cruess and Dr. Richard Cruess, France Denis and Raymond Royer, and Helgi and Ian Soutar. Other members of the leadership team include Arthur T. Porter, Peter Abraham, W. David Angus, Mark Beaudet, Maryse Bertrand, Cheryl Campbell-Steer, David Culver, Susan Curry, Claude Dauphin, Peter Duffield, Jacques Filion, Stephen Hajaly, Joan Ivory, David Laidley, John Morgan, Gwen Nacos, Alex Paterson, John Peacock, Glenn Rourke, Arnold Steinberg, Norman Steinberg, Michel Vennat and Pierrette Wong.

The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation has contributed $60 million to the Campaign through its Best Care for Children campaign, chaired by Marc Courtois.

The McGill University Health Centre’s Director General and Chief Executive Officer, the Honourable Arthur T. Porter, said: “Our Redevelopment Project promises to change Montreal, enabling us to build on our long history of providing outstanding care while being leaders in teaching and research. This is a project that will benefit the entire Montreal community and, as such, we are delighted that community leaders such as Mutsumi Takahashi and Jean Béliveau have agreed to be the public faces of our campaign. We are also indebted to the other members of the Campaign team for their commitment and their hard work.”