The walls of the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic just got a lot brighter with an inspiring, new mural that honours the late Jordan Boyd and the family behind the Jordan Boyd Celebrity Hockey Challenge. On Thursday, July 25 – two days before the sixth annual Jordan Boyd Celebrity Hockey Challenge – the QEII Foundation proudly unveiled the mural to Jordan’s family and friends, QEII heart health staff, and members of the media.
The wall unveiling and reception were sponsored by PwC, who was proud to stand alongside the Boyd family on such an important and historic day.
Over the years, Jordan’s legacy and the annual hockey tournament organized in his memory have had a direct impact on research and care at the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic. To date, the Jordan Boyd Celebrity Hockey Challenge has raised more than $855,000 for inherited heart disease research and to help prevent sudden death from cardiac arrest.
The impact of these funds for the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic and the patients it serves is beyond measure; highlights include:
- Enabling Dr. Ciorsti MacIntyre – a QEII cardiac electrophysiologist specializing in heart rhythm problems – to complete a six-month training fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, knowledge which she brought back to patients and families she treats at the QEII Health Sciences Centre.
- Funding the creation of a full-time, research nurse position for the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic, which is already transforming clinical practice and uncovering important breakthroughs.
- Increasing clinic time from one day per week to four, which is allowing the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic team to treat more patients and families – making complex diagnoses faster, reducing wait times so teams can intervene earlier, and minimizing the risk of dangerous heart rhythms.
“Jordan’s legacy is truly moving the needle forward in inherited heart disease research and innovation,” says Dr. Martin Gardner, cardiologist and the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic founder. “This wall mural overlooks the waiting area of our clinic, and will inspire and comfort other families waiting for treatment and information about their heart conditions.”
About Jordan Boyd
From the time he was old enough to look out a window, Jordan would watch in awe at his older brother and the neighborhood kids playing street hockey. He couldn’t wait to play the game. In fact, as a toddler first learning to walk, Jordan found a cut-off hockey stick and ran around the house with it – whacking everything in sight. At three years old, Jordan was already on skates and a lifelong love and talent for hockey immediately followed.
In 2013, while attending the hockey training camp of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Jordan’s life came to an unexpected end after he collapsed on the ice. It was later determined that Jordan had an undiagnosed, inherited heart condition called Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). He was 16 years old.
As part of the Jordan Boyd Celebrity Hockey Challenge, an entire community comes together each summer to honour and celebrate Jordan; an incredible young man and athlete who made a profound impact on and touched the lives of everyone he met.
About the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic
Dr. Martin Gardner founded the QEII’s Inherited Heart Disease Clinic in 2004 – the first clinic of its kind in Canada. Today, this world-renowned clinic leads the country in the diagnosis, treatment and research of patient and their families living with known, or suspected, genetic cardiac conditions.
This multidisciplinary clinic and its leading-edge team of cardiologists, nurses and genetic counsellors are dedicated to identifying inherited heart disease in families who otherwise would not have been diagnosed and mitigating the level of risk for those facing these conditions.
Support inherited research disease all year long and honour Jordan’s lasting legacy.
