NHL's Brad Richards donates $500,000 to Charlottetown PEI hospital

My uncle Wes "Bucko" Trainor was the first or second PEI-born NHL player, and the tradition has been carried on well by Forbes Kennedy, Erroll Thompson, Rick Vaive, Billy and Bobby Macmillan, Al McAdam, Gerard Gallant, and in recent years by Steve Ott and Stanley Cup (Tampa Bay) winner Brad Richards.

Now with the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars, Brad has announced a $500,000 donation to Charlottetown's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He donated the money in memory of Jamie Reynolds, a cousin of Richards who died of brain cancer in Charlottetown in 1989 at age seven. Richards was nine at the time, and the two were close.

"To see your best friend pass away with such a tragic thing, he's always remembered that and he's got a big heart," Glen Richards, Brad's father, told CBC News.

The donation will be set aside as an endowment fund, and the earnings will be utilized to purchase medical equipment required for treating children with chronic or serious illnesses.