TB Vets Keytag Program

TB Vets Keytags attach to your key ring. If your keys are ever lost, a finder can drop them into any Canada Post mailbox, no envelope required. The keys come back to us, and we send them back to you. Easy! The code on the keytags is secure. No-one but TB Vets can find your address. We have provided a key return service to British Columbia for 63 years. In that time, your donations have allowed us to give over $10 million dollars to help BC breathe.

Donation to the TB Vets Keytag Program fund research, education and equipment to fight respiratory distress right here in British Columbia. Your donations also employ the people with disabilities who run the keytag program.

Interview with TB Vets' Ron Goyette on Talk 1410 AM

Our former Executive Director talks with Tom Lucas on January 13, 2009 about the Keytag Program.

How the Key Return Service Works

Lose your keys and get them back thanks to BC's TB Vets.

In 1946, TB Vets developed BC's keytag program to identify lost keys and return them to their rightful owners. The keytags originally displayed licence plate numbers. However, for security reasons, TB Vets changed this to a secret coded number in 1975.

Whenever a set of keys is lost, the finder can simply drop them into any mailbox. Canada Post then returns those keys to TB Vets, who match the number on the keytag with the owner's name and address.

TB Vets has returned almost 200,000 sets of lost keys to people across BC. We have even returned keys that were found outside Canada. Keys have been returned from as far away as Hawaii, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Do you have a story about lost keys? Email us, and you could be featured on our website!

Where the Money Goes

Your keytag donations help purchase vital respiratory equipment for BC hospitals, fund ongoing TB research and education, provide employment for people with disabilities and support the education of respiratory therapists.

Because of you, TB Vets funds vital respiratory equipment in hospitals across BC. In 2008, your donations funded equipment for: B.C. Children’s Hospital, B.C. Women’s Hospital & Health Centre, Burnaby Hospital, East Kootenay Regional Hospital, Kelowna General Hospital, Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, New Vista Society, Richmond Hospital, Royal Columbian Hospital, St. Michael’s Centre and St. Paul’s Hospital.

Research grants were awarded to Dr. Yossef Av-Gay and Dr. Zakaria Hmama of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, and bursaries were given to students of the Respiratory Therapy Program at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

Each year there are more requests for help. The need for life-saving respiratory equipment continues to grow. With your help, we can rise to meet that need.

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