Tour de Guelph Helps Patients at Guelph General Breathe Easy

On June 25 of this year, seven hundred and five riders signed on to ride one of the six, beautiful routes that meandered in and around the local countryside, and together raised close to $100,000 for important initiatives that benefit people in our community.

Guelph General Hospital purchased two non-invasive respiratory ventilators with its share of the proceeds. As Jane Ryan-Champagne, GGH’s Charge Respiratory Therapist describes in her video, these ventilators are “life-saving machines.”


Thousands of people in our community are affected by health conditions causing life threatening respiratory distress such as congestive heart failure, pneumonia, severe COPD, and severe asthma. When people with these conditions end up at our Hospital, they can be in an incredible amount of distress, essentially suffocating because they are not able to take in enough oxygen.

The new ventilators increase the Hospital’s fleet, allowing us to keep up with current patient care demands. Before the new ventilators arrived, Jane recalls “there always seemed to be one more patient in need of one.”

With a non-invasive ventilator, the patient does not have to be intubated. Instead of a tube positioned in their airway, the patient simply wears a breathing mask and lets the ventilator take care of breathing for them.

This means the patient does not have to spend time in our ICU. Patients can have a complete turn-around within hours and be cared for in the Hospital’s Step-down Unit over fewer days. Quicker recovery times and shorter stays are better for patients and their families, and a shorter stay means a space is open for the next patient.

“I just can’t imagine what it would be like without these machines – we save so many lives with them” said Jane.

At the Foundation, we just can’t imagine what life would be like without Tour de Guelph and all the incredible people who contribute to the fundraising success that has helped bring these ventilators to our Hospital.

One of every two dollars spent on hospital equipment comes from a donor and we are grateful for all the many ways that people in our community contribute, including participation in events like Tour de Guelph.