It was a scholarship JoAnne Buggey established to honour her father and his long career in the pharmaceutical business. And for 20 years now the Leslie F. Buggey Graduate Scholarship in Pharmacy has been making a difference in students’ lives – a difference that’s not been forgotten.

Ric Procyshyn was a practising pharmacist when he decided he wanted to go back to university to work towards a doctorate in pharmacy. With a passion for research, he was a perfect candidate to be the first of the Buggey scholars. “Like any graduate student, receiving this graduate scholarship made a difference between going to grad school and not going to grad school,” says Procyshyn, who received the scholarship in 1990. “It provided me with an allowance and I was able to focus on my studies.”

Procyshyn remembers meeting Les Buggey and his family when he received the scholarship. “Mr. Buggey was inspiring, he had achieved so much and if I were to achieve half as much that would be wonderful,” says Procyshyn, who corresponded regularly with Buggey until he passed away.

Procyshyn is now a clinical associate professor and researcher at the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Research Institute where he investigates many issues related to the treatment of schizophrenia as well as the links between smoking and schizophrenia. “I hope to make a difference in people’s lives,” he says.

And he credits where he is to the scholarships he’s received along the way. “There’s probably no way I could have gone to grad school without scholarships,” says Procyshyn. “I needed to pay for books, tuition and rent and scholarships helped with that.”

JoAnne’s kept in touch with Ric throughout the years as well, and Ric says “she’s like family.”

“Ric was so good to my dad,” says JoAnne Buggey, who gets to know each scholarship recipient personally. “They couldn’t have found a better person to start if off.”

The Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative has also made a contribution to this fund.