Shared Career Adds to a Special Bond for Twins at Lakeridge Health

Lakeridge Health is fortunate to have a team of talented and dedicated staff and physicians who serve our Durham Region communities. But did you know that our exceptional team includes several sets of twins? Read on about some of these sibling pairs.  

Katherine Pilgrim (left) and Cynthia Loughran (right) are identical twins working together in the Maternal Newborn unit at the Ajax Pickering Hospital. Katherine started working at Lakeridge in 1997, with Cynthia joining her in 2002. “We have been working as Registered Nurses together in Maternal Newborn full-time since then, and usually on the same shift,” explained Katherine. “We have welcomed many newborns into the world working together. Families think it’s fun, and many have asked to have a picture of their baby with the twin nurses.”

Cynthia added that working together also comes with several benefits. “We get to carpool, take turns bringing lunch for the day, and we have the same days off.”

Katherine and Cynthia’s families are also very close. They enjoy spending time with each other and vacationing together, including Katherine’s five children, and Cynthia’s four children. “We are so grateful to belong to the Lakeridge Health family.”

Karen Donnelly (left) and Kim Heevel (right) are twins working together in the Emergency Department at the Port Perry Hospital. The two have been nursing for 34 years, but it was only in recent years that they began nursing together at Lakeridge Health. 

“Karen and her family moved closer to me so we could see more of each other as we got older,” explained Kim. “At the time, there were a couple of positions open at the Port Perry Hospital and we were able to work together on the same line, so we took the jobs. We had never actually nursed together before. We’d always been on different floors, and never in the same city. It was such a gift to have this opportunity fall into our laps, and we couldn’t turn it down.”

Working together has allowed Karen and Kim to spend more time with each other outside of work as well. “We have our days off together so we can also do things with our other family members,” Kim shared. “We actually have sleepovers too! After our first day shift, I go over to her house and we have a sleepover. Then we go back to work together the next day.”

Karen also noted that “we are like two peas in a pod. You would think we’ve been working together our whole careers.”

Having twin nurses has also brought joy to many of their patients.

“The patients get a kick out of it. We have a lot of return patients who say, ‘I didn’t know there were two of you.’ It’s definitely a conversation piece,” said Kim.

When reflecting on their nursing career working together, both Karen and Kim praise each other. “She makes me a better nurse,” they say about one another. “We’ve only got a few years of nursing left and we get to finish our careers together, which I never thought would happen. It’s truly a gift,” explained Kim.