Now living in Kelowna, entrepreneur Marshall Eliuk spent the better part of five decades building a car dealership and commercial and residential empire in Peace River, Alberta.
But in 1999, Eliuk’s doctors put the brakes on the businessman, when he was diagnosed with a severe form of aplastic anemia, a rare and serious blood disease. He was put on a treatment program that called for the transfusion of six bags of platelets every three days for nine months.
Today he’s back up to full speed and this week he announced a $3 million gift to the University of Alberta Hospital (UAH) hematology program, what the hospital calls a “transformational gift” that will give patients with blood diseases a place to spend time with their families, and provide staff and physicians the resources required to expand research and develop innovations to improve their care.
In gratitude for the life-saving care he received in the Hematology Unit at the University of Alberta Hospital, Eliuk gave $3 million to the University Hospital Foundation, establishing The Marshall Eliuk Fund for Clinical Innovation and Exemplary Care in Hematology.
“We are so grateful for Marshall’s extraordinary gift to our program. It will make such a difference in what we’re able to do,” said Dr. Loree Larratt, clinical hematologist at the University of Alberta Hospital
Eliuk has lived much of his life in overdrive. At 14, he took a job as an auto mechanic. Fifteen years later, he bought his first car dealership in Peace River, AB.
Over the next 46 years, Eliuk expanded his passion for business and entrepreneurship to include five car dealerships, and 286 residential and commercial properties throughout central and northern Alberta.
“I’ve always had energy,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to be doing something.”
Thanks to the treatment he received, he’s back up to full speed.
“My doctors told me, ‘Do this and hopefully things will work out.’ By the end of my treatment, my blood count had returned to normal. They called my recovery a miracle.”
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