The SickKids Foundation received a $30 million gift from the Labatt family on Wednesday that is being billed as the largest of its kind for children's cardiac medicine and research in North America.
The donation from Arthur - the son of Ontario brewer John S. Labatt -- and Sonia Labatt is the largest gift in the history of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.
"Our motivation to support SickKids is simple and straightforward," Sonia Labatt said in a statement.
"We feel that healthy children lead more fulfilling and productive lives, and a more productive society has a global impact," she added.
"We are privileged in being able to offer support to an institution that provides some of the best pediatric health care in the world."
During a morning news conference, SickKids Foundation president Michael O'Mahoney thanked them for the gift.
"On behalf of children that will never know your names - they are not even born now, these children who will benefit from your philanthropy - thank you very much," O'Mahoney said.
The donation includes $25 million to establish The Labatt Family Heart Centre. That facility is scheduled to open this spring. The remaining $5 million will go towards a brain tumour research centre.
The heart centre will provide state-of-the-art care to children with congenital heart disease, the leading cause of birth-defect related deaths worldwide.
The centre will also play a key role in cardiac care education and its research programs will focus on both congenital heart disease and the early origins of adult onset heart disease.
With files from The Canadian Press
