The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation Golf Tournament raises a record $938,000 for the Hugh G. Hallward Chair in Pediatric Surgical Research

Now in its 19^th year, the tournament has raised close to $11 million for McGill-MCH academic chairs

MONTREAL, Sept. 11, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation (MCHF) is pleased to announce that this year's MCHF Golf Tournament, held once again at the Royal Montreal Golf Club, raised a record $938,000. Funds will support the Hugh G. Hallward Chair in Pediatric Surgical Research.

Born into a family with a strong philanthropic tradition, Hugh Hallward co-founded the MCHF Golf Tournament in 1997 to support excellence in pediatric care at the Children's by raising money to help attract and retain the best and brightest medical talent. To honour and continue Hugh's tradition of supporting outstanding medical professionals, the organizing committee of the tournament created the Hugh G. Hallward Chair in Pediatric Surgical Research. The chair will provide key resources that wouldn't otherwise be available, from grant writing to technical support, to conduct research with the potential to be used in a clinical setting quickly and effectively, within a generation.

Mark Pathy, Chair of the MCHF Golf Tournament organizing committee, says the committee recognizes the importance of investing in academic chairs, both to support research and as a springboard to other funding. "Providing new research opportunities for today's physicians will yield huge dividends in the future. Academic chairs provide valuable resources for researchers to make significant advances in pediatric medicine and help attract and retain top medical personnel. As well, each $3 million endowed chair can bring in between five and ten times that amount in additional related funding."

Hugh Hallward's son John says that his family is pleased that the tournament chose to honour his father's work on behalf of the Children's. "My father was a man of vision, who understood the importance of investing in the future. When the tournament's organizing committee approached us about creating a chair in his name to give surgeons the resources they need to improve outcomes for patients within a generation, we were happy to lend our support."

Greg Rokos, Chair of the MCHF board of directors and member of the Tournament's organizing committee, is grateful for everyone who helped make this year's Tournament such a huge success. "Thank you to our Tournament organizing committee members, Mr. Fernand Bibeau who served as our Honorary President, our lead sponsor the RBC Foundation, our other loyal sponsors along with all our volunteers, golfers, donors, and to our raffle-ticket purchasers. Pembroke's raffle-prize gift of a pair of season tickets to see our city's favourite hockey team certainly added to all the excitement!"

ABOUT THE MONTREAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION
The Montreal Children's Hospital is the pediatric teaching hospital of McGill University's Faculty of Medicine. The Children's is a leader in providing a broad spectrum of highly specialized care to newborns, children, and adolescents from all across Quebec. The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation supports the Hospital in its mandate. The Foundation also raised $105 million in its Best Care for Children Campaign to help build the new Montreal Children's Hospital on the Glen site, which opened its doors to patients last May. For more information, please visit childrenfoundation.com

SOURCE The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation

Kim Fraser, Senior Director of Communications, The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation, 1 Place Alexis Nihon, 3400, boul. de Maisonneuve Ouest,, Bureau 1420, Montréal (Québec) H3Z 3B8, T : 514-934-4846 F : 514-939-3551, [email protected]