Mavis and Will Tishinski during the July 2023 opening of the Will & Mavis Tishinski Tranquility Trail at Victoria General Hospital. (VHF / HANDOUT)
WINNIPEG — A donation of more than $531,000 from Will Tishinski, given in memory of his late wife Mavis, has made him the largest cumulative donor in Victoria Hospital Foundation‘s history.
Plaques were unveiled Friday marking the gift, which supported recent upgrades to the minimally invasive surgical suite. Completed this summer, the upgrades mark the first major overhaul of a surgical suite at the hospital in more than a decade. In recognition of the donation, Theatre #4 was renamed The Mavis Tishinski Surgical Suite in recognition.
“I cannot overstate the impact Will and Mavis Tishinski have had on patient care at Victoria Hospital,” said Foundation CEO Jessica Miller.
Will and Mavis met at Victoria Hospital in 1956, when Mavis was a nursing student and Will a patient. They married in 1958, and Mavis went on to spend three decades nursing at the hospital, including in the operating room, where she was among the first trained in laparoscopic surgery.
The couple continued supporting the hospital after retirement, including a 2023 gift that created the Will & Mavis Tishinski Tranquility Trail.
“I am proud to support the work of the hospital and to honour the life and legacy of Mavis in this way,” Tishinski said in a release.
Mavis died on April 10, 2026, at age 88.
