Some people live far from cancer treatment, and just what those patients don’t need in that critical time is travel stress on top of medical stress.
Clearwater mayor Merlin Blackwell, 53, and with cancer history of his own, knows all too well the concerns and added stress caused by having to travel out of his own town to the closest centre in Kelowna for diagnosis and treatments for melanoma.
“I have firsthand experience waiting for and wanting cancer care closer to home,” Blackwell told the Clearwater Times,
He is encouraging people to support the newly launched Cancer Won’t Wait campaign announced on Jan. 31.
“We all know, it’s true – cancer won’t wait for our healthcare system to address the issues of people living in surrounding areas near Kamloops as they are forced to travel to Kelowna or Vancouver if diagnosed with cancer,” he said. “This campaign is pushing for shovels in the ground, a concrete business case or the real concrete being poured in Kamloops for the centre as promised years ago by the previous premier, John Horgan.”
Blackwell’s experiences will be added to the many other testimonials supporting the Cancer Won’t Wait advocacy campaign (website: cancerwontwait.ca) initiated by the Thompson Regional Hospital District (TRHD) focused on demonstrating to the current B.C. government that expanding local cancer services are a key priority for people in the TRHD service area.
Since the provincial government is expected to soon announce the long-anticipated business case promised in Nov. 2023, something seen as a progressive move forward, the chair of the TRHD, Mike O’Reilly, said the region has experienced nearly 30 years of missed deadlines made by current and past governments.
“We had no choice but to launch this campaign to remain top of mind with the government and try to accelerate the construction timeline, because Cancer Won’t Wait,” O’Reilly said.
Blackwell says he and O’Reilly, who is a Kamloops city councillor, are the “initial spokespeople for this advocacy campaign” and they are hoping to attract others to join them.
“We are looking forward to bringing on some community champions both from the urban areas as well as rural to start telling the stories about how much harder it is for people in the Kamloops area and in the rural areas to get cancer treatment. We hope they will be sharing the things that cause problems for us because of distance, not being easily accessible, delays in treatment, travelling distances, the risk of doing that in winter, and the added cost are all key concerns that make the construction of this cancer centre so critical.”
One of the things Blackwell is urging government to consider is the mental toll a delay in diagnosis and or treatment takes on a person.
“I can speak personally from my own experience to the fact that delays increase the stress of not getting diagnosed or getting treatment, and that really wears on you as a human being. It’s not good for your mental health at all, that’s a message I am personally putting out there.”
The rural mayor feels it’s not just about the actual treatment but the delays surrounding confirmation of diagnosis and treatment being so stressful and says anyone waiting for treatment knows “exactly what that feeling is like” just wanting to get on with things once diagnosed. “The stress is not good for people. It’s the whole ‘cancer won’t wait’ thing. You are sitting and waiting with the feeling of ‘why can’t we just get this thing done?’ A couple of weeks is fine but when you start getting into months of waiting it really does affect your health and well-being. Your mental health especially. “
Blackwell adds if people are fortunate enough to live in an area like Clearwater with a hospital like Dr. Helmcken Memorial that offers lab services, you might be able to get some lab work done, but travel is still required for those appointments when the specialists have to “visually inspect” and check on patients and those trips sometimes require overnight accommodation and additional expense for what might be a very short appointment in Kelowna.
There are an estimated 40 per cent of patients receiving radiation treatment at the BC Cancer Centre near Kelowna General Hospital travelling there from the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap health service area.
“During my first cancer experience when I was living in Williams Lake at 27, they required me to go for radiation in Vancouver and I actually slept on my mom’s laundry room floor and then got too sick for that. I was away from work and my apartment in Williams Lake. I was getting the treatment I needed. I got surgery very quickly back then, 25 years ago, I was getting the radiation treatment I needed, everything from that aspect was going well other than the fact that it was six hours away from my home and my job. Everyone’s journey is different,” said Blackwell.
The advocates are sure an important aspect of having a fully functional cancer centre in Kamloops would attract a whole new group of professionals.
“A centre like this should bolster the whole Royal Inland Hospital team adding to the community of professional growth and development in the people we need to do cancer treatment.”