Back the Cat campaign gets Knights of Columbus donation

April 4, 2023

By Mike Riley

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Back the Cat campaign, an initiative to bring a CT scanner to the Quinte Health-North Hastings Hospital got a boost recently with a $1,000 donation from the Bancroft chapter of the Knights of Columbus on March 29 at the North Hastings Hospital. Peter Penlington, Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus North Hastings Divine Mercy Council #7476, Kim Bishop, Back the Cat chair, and Dr. Peter McEnery, one of the founding members of this local chapter of the Knights of Columbus, comment on this donation.

The $1,000 donation from the Knights of Columbus North Hastings Divine Mercy Council #7476 occurred on March 29 at the North Hastings Hospital. Penlington said that the donation came from their sale of Christmas trees over this past winter.

“Since the [Knights of Columbus] took over selling Christmas trees three or four years ago, all the money raised selling Christmas trees and Christmas cards go to local charities, and we also dipped into our savings account. We ended up donating $500 to the food bank, $500 to the Pregnancy Centre and $1,000 to Back the Cat,” he says.

The North Hastings Hospital’s fundraising initiative to acquire a CT scanner for the hospital is called Back the Cat, and its aim is to raise $2.5 million. Having a CT scanner at the local hospital will enable these diagnostic scans to be done here in Bancroft instead of sending patients up to two hours away to get these scans.

A CT scanner is a medical imaging technique to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The Back the Cat campaign will help close a healthcare gap that currently exists in communities across North Hastings. In addition to saving lives, it also serves to attract and retain physicians in our community. Some 15,000 people in Bancroft and the surrounding areas use the services of the North Hastings Hospital.

According to Bishop, there are approximately 33 members in the organization that realize the importance of having a CT scanner at the Bancroft hospital, including Dr. McEnery, a long-time advocate for the CT scanner. He says that even though he is retired, he “is looking forward to the installation of this life-saving diagnostic tool.”