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B.C.-raised family gives back after daughter recovers from serious riding accident

A beautiful summer day back in 2010 turned into one that David and Cindy Primrose will never forget. While visiting relatives in B.C., their 11-year-old daughter Natalie was thrown from a horse when she was out riding one day. She was rushed to the emergency department in Mission and then flown by air ambulance with her mom to BC Children’s Hospital .
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David and Cindy Primrose raised funds for the BC Children’s Hospital after their daughter Natalie was thrown from a horse, flown by air ambulance to receive care.

A beautiful summer day back in 2010 turned into one that David and Cindy Primrose will never forget. While visiting relatives in B.C., their 11-year-old daughter Natalie was thrown from a horse when she was out riding one day. She was rushed to the emergency department in Mission and then flown by air ambulance with her mom to BC Children’s Hospital.

The B.C.-raised family was living in Alberta at the time, and David vividly recalls the moment he received the call at work: “As soon as I heard the word ‘helicopter,’ I realized how serious this was. This wasn’t just a broken arm or dislocated shoulder. I took the first plane to Vancouver for what felt like the longest flight of my life.”

Natalie suffered multiple internal organ injuries from the horse stepping on her. She spent the next 12 days in the pediatric intensive care unit at BC Children’s, and was then admitted as an inpatient for several weeks. While it was a challenging time for the Primroses, they knew there was no better place for their family to be.

Natalie’s recovery continued as they returned to their home in Alberta. After several months of follow-up care at their local hospital, she no longer needed check-ups and could live a normal life again.

That wasn’t, however, the end of the family’s connection to BC Children’s Hospital.

“While at the hospital, we saw other families who were worse off than we were,” David said. “So we decided to do what we could to help make a difference in the lives of other families.”

The Primroses hosted fundraising dinners in support of BC Children’s Hospital and joined the Foundation’s monthly giving program. And as Natalie and her younger sister Julia got older, it gave David and Cindy the opportunity to plan for the future and express their values through a legacy gift to the hospital.

It was an incredibly straightforward process — one that consisted of them working with their lawyer to write BC Children’s Hospital Foundation into their Will.

“It’s easy to put off, but legacy gifts aren’t complicated once you actually do it,” David said.

It’s also an act that can be truly transformative. Legacy gifts help elevate children’s health care in many ways — from supporting programs that ensure children receive care that puts their needs first, to advancing innovative research aimed at conquering childhood conditions. In short, they ensure kids receive the best health care imaginable, which is something the Primroses experienced first-hand.

“We want people to know the difference they can make in a child’s life, like previous donors did for us,” Cindy said.