Langley groups team up to support mammography fundraiser

Thrift store shopping is back in fashion and that will help Langley Memorial Hospital get a new mammography technology sooner.

The Langley Memorial Hospital Auxiliary operates Penny Pincher thrift store in downtown Langley City. Between 1994 and 2025, the auxiliary has donated more than $15 million to the hospital.

Now it will be raising money specifically to modern the hospital’s mammography services, and the Langley Community Health & Hospital Foundation will match the auxiliary funds, up to $500,000.

The Future of Mammography Campaign is a $2.1 million effort to modernize the hospital’s mammography clinic with advanced technology, and give patients access to both screening and diagnostic mammography in one location.

“It’s an amazing opportunity. We’re thrilled to be involved with it,” said auxiliary president Barb Stewart. “And it’s so important. Early screening and detection, that’s what’s going to catch it. And we’re just happy to be able to help and make it a better place.”

The two organizations kicked off the campaign with cake for patrons at the thrift store on Sept. 3.

“Your commitment of $500,000 towards upgrading, modernizing the mammography suite in our hospital is going to have an extraordinary impact on patients from screening to diagnosis through the pharmacy, the lab, and surgery. That entire journey that our patients, mostly women, experience during a really frightening time,” said Heather Scott, executive director of the Langley Community Health & Hospital Foundation.

The auxiliary, which started more than 80 years ago, raises money through Penny Pincher at 20560 Fraser Hwy as well as the gift shop in the hospital (so far in 2026, the gift shop has donated $53,500), sales at the hospital, donations and bequests, grants, raffles, and cash donations. The auxiliary’s annual gifts to Langley Memorial range from nearly $450,000 in 2021 to almost $800,000 in 2025 - and the impact is felt across every unit in the hospital, from the newborns who receive handmade outfits to the meet-and-greet programs for hospital visitors and scholarships for students going into medical fields.

It also fundraised to support the purchase of three buses for residential care and, most recently, a seven-seat van to assist psychiatric unit patients at LMH’s Memorial Cottage’s tertiary rehabilitation program. The new van, which replaces an aging unreliable vehicle, helps patients get to appointments and activities in the community.

Auxiliary president Barb Stewart explained that the mammography campaign won’t prevent the auxiliary from continuing to raise money for other needs at the hospital.

“In June, we donated $451,000 for new equipment for the hospital,” she noted.

The auxiliary has a cadre of about 200 volunteers but there’s room for more.

“And we’ll take any age,” Stewart said. “And we really need some men to come and volunteer. We work with the hospital and their volunteer program, so we get teens a couple of hours a week.”

Stewart explained why she joined the auxiliary.

“We were always raised to volunteer. My parents were into scouting and things like that. And when I was looking to retire, I thought I don’t want to just sit around,” she said. “But I don’t want to just [keep busy]. I wanted to volunteer. Little did I know that a year after joining, I’d end up being president.

“I love it,” she added. “It’s such a great cause. The people that you volunteer with are amazing.”

One of those people is her granddaughter, Isabella, who started about two years ago and volunteers under the guidance of the adult helpers as she’s only 13.

“I was bored on spring break so I came with my grandma,” Isabella explained about how she came to volunteer at Penny Pincher.

Most auxiliary volunteers are women and most of them are older so joining the mammography campaign was a natural fit.

“I just hope you feel such immense pride that every single day, every hour, the many hours that you give throughout the year, whether it’s at the gift shop, Penny Pinchers, and the multitude of other things you do is extraordinary and is making a difference,” Scott commented. “I want you to know that the foundation knows this, and we’re so proud to be able to partner with you and so grateful for our partnership because together because I think we can do great things.”