Hospitals of Regina Foundation money hits home for winners

The chance of winning a lottery home might be a fantasy to those who buy tickets, but the chance of needing the medical equipment funded by the Hospitals of Regina Foundation is much higher.

As early bird prize winners, Laurie and Rick Kosloski now know what it’s like to face the reality of both scenarios. Three months ago, Rick needed medical imaging equipment for a diagnosis of cancer.

“I’m just kind of going through the cancer moment right now, but all of this stuff that they’re putting in hospitals, it sure helps to get us through,” Rick explained as his wife teared up.

This year, the money raised by the home lottery is going toward upgrading that medical imaging equipment, including two new ultrasound machines, a new CT scanner, a refurbished MRI as well as replacing and upgrading the radiology suite at the Regina General Hospital.

For the Kosloskis, picking up the keys to the early bird prize of a lake view cottage and pontoon boat on Katepwa Lake with their kids Meagan and Jordan in tow was a bright spot during a tough time. Laurie said they have supported the (HRF) lottery for nearly 20 years, never expecting they would actually win.

“It wasn’t like ‘Oh darn, I didn’t win’ because you know it’s for a good cause so it just didn’t matter, but this time we did,” she said with a laugh.

Laurie explained they live in Lipton and have always loved camping at Katepwa, so they are pretty certain they will take the $675,000 cottage, already making plans to spend Christmas at the lake.

“We’re lake people. We love to be at the lake and to be able to live there would be just like a dream,” she said.

“I’ll be fishing,” Rick chimed in with a laugh, adding that the biggest thing they’ve ever won before this was a pork from the Lipton mud bog.

Grand prize winners, Garth Robson and his wife Beverly Crossman from Craven, were also excited to pick up their keys and tour their new $1.1 million show home in the Creeks neighbourhood of east Regina.

Robson said he got a call from Dino Sophocleous, president and CEO of HRF, with good news.

“The good news was we won the house and I didn’t know what to do, didn’t know if we should be laughing, crying, didn’t know what to do,” Robson said. “In the meantime, we had all kinds of friends and relatives calling to tell us that we’d won.”

The retired couple live on an acreage near Craven and will now have to decide where to live.

They have also been supporting the HRF lottery nearly every year since it first began because they know everyone needs hospitals at some point or another.

“It affects everybody, I mean who hasn’t had an X-ray done or, I know I’ve had an MRI, and the more accurate pictures they get, the better it is for the patients,” Robson commented.

Crossman said the medical imaging technology also hit close to home for them this week when they got a scare about their grandson being injured. Fortunately, the test results showed it wasn’t as serious as initially expected.

David Chernoff of Regina won the 50/50 prize and the full list of winners will be published on the HRF website.