IRONMAN OUTDOOR CURLING BONSPIEL ANNOUNCES 2018 HONOUREE

IRONMAN OUTDOOR CURLING BONSPIEL ANNOUNCES 2018 HONOUREE

MARGARET MORTON NAMED HONOUREE

January 22, 2018 – Winnipeg, MB – The Ironman Outdoor Curling Bonspiel announces Margaret Morton, a long time employee of Frontier Toyota, as the 2018 Ironman Bonspiel Honouree. Since 2002 the bonspiel has taken the opportunity of the weekend to recognize loved ones as honourees – those who have survived and those that will always be remembered including people that contributed to the bonspiel over the years. Margaret Morton will be honoured in person at the Opening Ceremonies at the Ironman Outdoor Curling Bonspiel on February 2, 2018 being held at The Forks on the Red River.

Margaret Morton is a very strong, independent woman who survived a heart attack in August 2010. As with many women she mistook the heart attack symptoms to just not feeling right. “I was shopping with my Granddaughter and just felt odd,” Margaret Morton remembers. “I continued onto a celebration for a coworker and upon arriving home started perspiring, felt weak and started feeling pressure on my chest.”

Margaret called 911 and even when the fire and paramedics arrived she still wanted to walk out of her condo and into the hospital on her own instead of being on the stretcher. Her doctor advised her after the fact that she had a 90% blockage in the artery and was very lucky.

Recovery for Margaret took about a month before returning to work; however, she was surrounded by friends and family always, which includes her two beautiful grandchildren. Even in the hospital, in the operating room she found she was meeting customers of hers from Frontier Toyota where she has now worked for 17 years. “By the end of the surgery to insert the stint I thought I had almost sold the new Highlander to the doctor,” laughs Margaret as she recalls the procedure. “I had sold his wife her current vehicle.”

The tradition of announcing an honouree started in 2002. “Our founder Eric Dawson’s father-in-law George Lammers passed away due to a heart attack on January 18, 2000,” says Michael Thompson, Ironman Outdoor Curling Bonspiel. “This event was started in George’s memory.”

Eric Dawson always wanted the Ironman Curling event to raise money for the Heart and Stroke foundation and the event does so through team registrations as well as the collection of separate donations. Leading into the 17th annual bonspiel the event has raised $91,000 and hopes to raise over $100,000 by the end of the 2018 event.