The B.C. Children’s Hospital holds a special place in Layla Dorko’s heart
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A young British Columbia farmer is giving back to the hospital that saved her life in April 2017.
Layla Dorko, a 14-year-old beef producer from Chilliwack, B.C., raised $20,000 for the B.C. Children’s Hospital through a livestock auction.
The initiative served as her way of saying thank you.
A CT scan during a trip to the emergency room at Chilliwack Hospital revealed Dorko had an intestinal blockage. An ambulance transported her to the children’s hospital in Vancouver for emergency surgery.
“It would have been life-threatening if I didn’t get the surgery,” she told the Vancouver Sun about a week before the Nov. 28 auction. “I couldn’t keep anything down.”
Dorko spent two-and-a-half weeks in hospital, where doctors and nurses treated her like “family.”
When a cow gave birth to a calf named Izzy in February, the young farmer decided to sell the animal to benefit the hospital.
She planned to sell Izzy during an auction at the Abbotsford Stock Yards. She hoped to raise about $4,000.
“It’s an unbelievable thing for a 14-year-old girl to do,” Larry Kooyman, manager of the stockyard, told Farms.com. “Not many teenagers would think to give back to a hospital the way she did.”
After a farmer purchased Izzy, the individual donated it back to the stockyard to be sold again. This act of kindness happened five times, generating a total $17,000 for the hospital.
“It was great to see the farmers come out and not only support the hospital, but also support Layla as well,” Kooyman said.
Donations continued coming in after the auction ended, bringing the grand total to $20,000 and counting.
“It’s way more than I expected,” Dorko told the Vancouver Sun Saturday.
Layla Dorko and Izzy/Vancouver Sun photo