Media Advisory/Photo Opportunity - SickKids launches first-of-its-kind social
network for kids in care just in time for the holidays

TORONTO , Dec. 7 /CNW/ - On Wednesday, December 9 , The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), TELUS and Kids' Health Links Foundation will announce the launch of a landmark program for children in care at SickKids, just in time for the holiday season.

Reporters and photographers are invited to attend.

    
    When:    Wednesday, December 9, 2009
             9 a.m. - 10 a.m.

    Where:   The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)
             555 University Avenue (Elizabeth St. entrance)
             Toronto, ON
             M5G 1X8

    Who:     Hon. Deb Matthews, Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
             Mary Jo Haddad, President and CEO, SickKids
             Ted Garrard, President & CEO, SickKids Foundation
             Joe Natale, President, TELUS Consumer Solutions
             Basile Papaevangelou, Chairman and Founder, Kids' Health Links
              Foundation
             SickKids patients
    

About The Hospital for Sick Children

SickKids is affiliated with the University of Toronto . It is Canada's most research-intensive hospital and the largest centre dedicated to improving children's health in the country. As innovators, SickKids leads and partners to improve child health provincially, nationally and internationally through the integration of care, research and education, providing the best in complex and specialized family-centred care, groundbreaking scientific and clinical advances, sharing our expertise globally, enhancing an academic environment and championing an accessible, comprehensive and sustainable child health system. For more information, please visit www.sickkids.ca.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada , with $9.6 billion of annual revenue and 11.9 million customer connections including 6.4 million wireless subscribers, 4.1 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and more than 100,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle , TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video. In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $137 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered more than 2.6 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Nine TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead our local philanthropic initiatives. For more information about TELUS, please visit TELUS.com.

About Kids' Health Links Foundation

Kids' Health Links was founded in 2004 by Basile Papaevangelou and his daughter Christina to connect, through technology, children in health care facilities across Canada with friends and family, their teachers and schoolwork. Kids' Health Links technology solutions helps to alleviate stress, isolation and loneliness for children in medical care in order to help children heal faster and better to overcome traumatic medical experiences.

For further information: For media inquiries, please contact: Matet Nebres, SickKids Media Relations, [phone], [email protected]; Megan Fielding, TELUS Media Relations, [phone], [email protected]; Basile Papaevangelou, Kids' Health Links Foundation, [phone] (KHLF office), [email protected]