Boosting Women's Heart Health
Calgary Health Foundation receives $5M gift to expand women's cardiovascular care in Southern Alberta.
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A $5 million gift from Calgary philanthropists Harold and Betty Allsopp will permanently expand a specialized heart clinic for women at South Health Campus in southern Alberta, Calgary Health Foundation announced on June 3, 2026. The donation transforms what began as a three-year pilot program into a permanent center of excellence — giving thousands of women access to cardiovascular care that most of Canada's Prairie region has never had.
In Canada, a woman dies from cardiovascular disease every 16 minutes, according to the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Women in Alberta face a 20% higher risk than men of dying or suffering heart failure within five years of a first heart attack, Edmonton Journal reported. The Allsopp clinic is designed to close that gap.
A Pilot Program Becomes a Permanent Clinic
The Harold and Betty Allsopp Women's Cardiovascular Health Clinic ran as a pilot at South Health Campus from 2022 to 2025, according to the Libin Cardiovascular Institute. It focused on conditions that disproportionately affect women, including Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) — a sudden tear in a heart artery — and POTS, a disorder that causes dizziness and rapid heartbeat when standing. The $5 million gift makes the clinic permanent and expands its scope.
The clinic will now offer care for arrhythmias, microvascular disease, and cardio-obstetrics — heart health during pregnancy. Dr. Roopinder Sandhu, the clinic's director, said the gift will let the team "develop coordinated care pathways with community cardiologists, primary care providers, and emergency departments," according to GlobeNewswire.
How a Newspaper Article Sparked a $5 Million Gift
The donation did not come through a typical fundraising campaign. Calgary Health Foundation CEO Paul Rossmann published a piece in the Calgary Herald about the role of private giving in filling healthcare gaps. Harold and Betty Allsopp read it and reached out, according to GlobeNewswire. Their gift was then routed through an endowed fund at Calgary Foundation, which acted as a bridge between the donors and the health foundation.
Calgary Foundation CEO Eva Friesen said, "Philanthropy is most powerful when it meets a genuine community need." Rossmann added that the Allsopps' gift "speaks to their progressive approach to philanthropy" and their commitment to building "a true comprehensive healthcare system."
Women's Heart Disease Has Long Been Misdiagnosed and Underfunded
Before this clinic, specialized women's heart programs existed in only four provinces: Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario, according to PMC. The Prairie provinces were largely underserved. Historically, two-thirds of heart disease research in Canada focused on men, creating what critics call a "default male" model that has led to women's symptoms being dismissed as anxiety or indigestion, the Libin Cardiovascular Institute noted.
Dr. Colleen Norris of the University of Alberta told CBC News that women wait longer in emergency rooms and are less likely to receive diagnostic heart scans than men. Patient cases like Saige Godberson-Parlin — who spent a year fighting for a diagnosis of a condition called ANOCA, or angina with no blocked arteries — show why specialized clinics matter. About 25,000 Canadian women die from heart disease each year.
A Larger Network Is Being Built Across Calgary
The Allsopp gift is one piece of a bigger plan. The Libin Cardiovascular Institute launched its formal women's cardiovascular health program, called "CV & Me," back in 2019. The Calgary Health Foundation is now fundraising to build a similar specialized program at Foothills Medical Centre, according to GlobeNewswire. The goal is a connected network of women's cardiac care across the city.
Not everyone agrees that private giving should drive essential healthcare. The Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta has noted that only 3.4% of health research funding in Alberta has historically gone to women's health — meaning a 15-fold increase would be needed to reach parity, according to the Edmonton Journal. Closing Canada's women's health gap could represent a $37 billion economic opportunity, a McKinsey report found in October 2025.
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