By Janaya Fuller-Evans, Burnaby Now November 17, 2010
All aboard: The Luksun family rides the Metropolis Express to promote the Burnaby Hospital's fundraiser on Nov. 20.
Photograph by: Courtesy of Mits Naga Photography, SPECIAL TO THE BURNABY NOW
Meet the Luksuns.
The family has 26 members, most located in Burnaby, and all have a special attachment to Burnaby Hospital.
On Nov. 9, 11 family members took part in a photo shoot on the Metropolis Express to help promote the hospital's current fundraising campaign.
"We've always been really happy with the care we received there," says Miranda McNamara, the granddaughter of Ellen and Ford Luksun, who helped organize the photo session.
McNamara currently lives with her family in New Westminster, while the majority of the Luksuns live in Burnaby. A few family members live in Vancouver, she adds, and one in Port Moody.
Ellen and Ford brought the family to Burnaby in 1969 from Krugersdorp, South Africa. The couple had four daughters - Ivy, Gloria, Grace and Pearl - and a son, Basil Luksun, who is the city's planning and building director. There are now 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren in the family.
"The hospital has always been really good to our family," says McNamara, eldest of the grandchildren. Her daughter was born at the hospital, and McNamara went to the diabetes clinic when she was pregnant, she adds.
Hospital staff also provided additional care to the family when Ellen was hospitalized over Christmas in 2008, after suffering a heart attack.
The family was very distressed, as they always spent Christmas dinner together, Ivy Chan, Ellen and Ford's daughter, says in a phone interview from Boston, Massachusetts. Chan, who lives in Burnaby, was visiting her son who is studying in Boston. The family spoke with Dr. John Martyn, who was covering for Ellen's regular doctor, about holding a family Christmas in the cafeteria.
However, Ellen was on heart monitors, which made this impossible. So Dr. Martyn offered the family use of a conference room in the cardiac unit instead.
"Dad was really touched," Chan says. "They'd been married 72 years, and he told her (Ellen), I didn't want a Christmas dinner without you beside me."
About 20 family members, and any nurses that were away from their own family Christmases that night, gathered for what would be Ellen's last Christmas. She passed away the following summer.
The hospital has cared for both of her parents, Chan says.
"The hospital means a lot to us."
The family made a donation to the hospital in 2009 and also took part in the hospital foundation's most recent fundraiser.
The foundation is taking part in Metropolis at Metrotown's new fundraising program this fall, which has four local non-profits each receiving the profits from the train at the mall for a month.
Each organization has a special day within its month for a fundraising challenge. Whichever group raises the most money on its Train Day will receive an additional $10,000.
Burnaby Hospital Foundation's Train Day is on Saturday, Nov. 20.
The money would go towards critical hospital equipment, according to a media release from the foundation.
To donate to the foundation's efforts, ride the train on Nov. 20. Each dollar donation will go to the hospital and add to the foundation's chances of receiving the additional $10,000 grant.
This is the first year that Metropolis at Metrotown has held the Train Your Charity: The Metropolis Express Fall 2010 Challenge.
The Progressive Society raised funds during September, and the Stream of Dreams Murals Society took its turn in October. The Adoptive Families Association of B.C. has the month of December, and its Train Day is Dec. 11.
The train runs from the atrium near the Bay to the area near the bus loop, in front of Lenscrafters.
The Metropolis Express donates money raised by rides on the trackless train to non-profits in Burnaby, New Westminster and East Vancouver throughout the year.
jfuller-evans@burnabynow.com
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