LAUREN AND DANIEL NIEZEN
As Lauren Niezen learned she was going into labour, the moment felt nothing like what she had imagined.
Margaret Swanson
A visit to the gym in Coquitlam was part of Margaret Swanson’s active lifestyle, until a sudden shift in her vision one day in August 2025 signalled something was wrong. What began as a familiar workout quickly turned life-threatening when everything in front of her appeared “sparkly” and she collapsed. At 69 years old, Margaret was experiencing a major stroke. “I remember looking at my phone and everything just did not look right,” Margaret recalls. “The next thing I knew, I was on the floor. I could not speak, and I could not move properly. I was confused more than anything.”
Wesley Phillips
As Lauren Phillips woke up 25-weeks into her pregnancy, she couldn’t ignore the feeling that something was off that morning. Listening to her intuition, the 31-year-old Port Moody resident and her husband made their way to Royal Columbian Hospital to make sure everything was okay. Little did they know, it would mark the beginning of a four-month stay involving an emergency c-section and an extended stretch in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) following Wesley’s birth.
Russ Moore
Russ Moore started to notice a slight shortness of breath that would come and go. The moments were so fleeting that he initially shrugged them off. But when the sensation returned one morning in late July 2025, while he was alone at his mother’s home in North Delta, he reached for his phone. His next memory is of waking up in a daze and bleeding from his head. Mustering the strength to call 911, Russ would soon find himself in Royal Columbian Hospital’s Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit (CSICU), critically ill and connected to a piece of medical equipment often considered a final attempt to save a life
Dular Family
Todd Clerkson
Generations of Heart Care: A Mother and Daughter’s Life-Saving Journey at RCH
Jasmine Martin
Courtney Waterhouse
 
A Legacy of Love: Donna Turkington’s Journey of Giving