Mandeep’s Love Letter to Surrey

Long before she became the manager at the Children’s Health Centre at Surrey Memorial Hospital, Mandeep’s story was intertwined with Surrey.   

She grew up here. She went to high school at Queen Elizabeth Secondary. She studied nursing at Douglas College and completed her pediatric placement at Surrey Memorial Hospital. Although her career began at Royal Columbian Hospital, she always knew she wanted to come back.  

Because as she explains it, this place is her home.   

“I live in Langley now, but Surrey is home. My parents are five minutes away. We grew up here. My family and friends are here.”  

For Mandeep, working with children was never a career decision. It was the only path she could ever imagine.  

“I always liked helping people. It was either going to be a nurse or a teacher. I knew I only wanted to work with kids.”  

Being a Voice for Children

Children, she says, experience health care differently. They don’t understand why they’re sick. Their families are frightened. Sometimes all they need is someone who can slow everything down.  

“Kids don’t know better. I want to be their voice. I want to be their advocate. A child’s first experience with health care can determine their relationship with the system for the rest of their life.”  

Whether that means sitting with an anxious child, helping parents understand what is happening, or speaking Punjabi with a family who feels overwhelmed in an unfamiliar health-care system, Mandeep believes caring begins long before treatment.  

“Even if the kids are at the scariest time in their lives, you need someone to talk to them calmly. I love doing that.”  

The Patient She Never Forgot

One patient, however, changed everything.  

A young oncology patient spent nearly a month on the pediatric unit while Mandeep cared for her through some of her hardest days. Together, they found routines that worked. They built trust. Mandeep worried she was overbearing, like a second parent.   

She was wrong.  

“I thought I was just the annoying nurse.”  

Later, that same little girl told her she had been her favourite nurse.  

“That family has a special place in my heart. She still comes up and says hello. Seeing her now, back at school, healthy again… that’s everything.”   

It was a reminder that the smallest moments often become the ones families remember forever.  

Advocating in a Different Way

Those moments also changed Mandeep.  

After years at the bedside and later as a patient care coordinator, an opportunity arose to become manager of the pediatric unit. Accepting the role meant stepping away from the day-to-day patient care she loved most.  

She said yes anyway.  

“What I miss the most is the nursing and family interaction.”  

But leadership, she realized, was simply another way of advocating.  

“Now I’m advocating in a different way. I’m advocating for my nurses. If my nurses have what they need, they’re able to care for every child who comes through these doors.”  

Making the Unit Feel Like Home

Today, much of her work happens away from the bedside, but her focus hasn’t changed.  

She spends her days rebuilding morale after years of burnout, welcoming new nurses into the team, creating opportunities for staff to reconnect, and working to make the pediatric unit somewhere people are proud to work again.  

“When they gave me this unit, I was like, ‘This is my home.’ Of course I want to make it better.”  

Care Close to Home

That vision extends beyond the people who work there.  

As Surrey continues to grow, so too does the need for children’s health care. Mandeep believes families deserve exceptional care close to home, where familiar faces, compassionate teams and trusted relationships can make frightening moments just a little easier.  

“We’re small, but we’re trying to provide so much so families don’t always have to travel to Vancouver. Care close to home is important.”

Every day, before the meetings begin, Mandeep still finds herself walking the halls of the pediatric unit. Saying hello to the children. Checking in with her nurses. Because no matter how her role has changed, this is still where her heart is. This is still home.  

This is the kind of care your support helps strengthen.

During the Kirmac Cares for Kids Match Campaign, every gift can make twice the impact for children and families. Help strengthen children’s care with Kirmac Cares for Kids Match Campaign

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