Hope Cancer Help Centre assists Saskatoon cancer patients with uninsured care costs
When Sharon Poole was told she had stage four ovarian cancer in March 2013, it wasn’t just the diagnosis that shocked her.
Following surgery and radiation, the 65-year-old had to be put on a liquid diet in August and the $14 bills for a six pack of Ensure were adding up fast. One top of that, she and her husband Murray paid $3,000 out of pocket for uninsured services.
It seemed if the cancer didn’t kill her, the debt might.
“Very devastating. You don’t know where to turn or what to do,” Poole said.
That’s when her dietician recommended her to the Hope Cancer Help Centre.
For the past 25 years, the small organization has helped ease the financial burden of Saskatoon cancer patients by helping them pay for uninsured necessities like dietary supplements, ostomy supplies, medication, transportation and creams for radiation burns.
Social workers and health care professionals at the Saskatoon Cancer Centre make referrals for those who really need it, like seniors on fixed income.
“I don’t think we would have been able to afford that much all the time. It is a big help,” said Poole, who now has a portion of her Ensure covered by the centre.
The organization was founded by three Saskatoon cancer patients, Lilah Brehon, Marie Thiesson and Olga Stefaniuk, who, after attending a retreat on Vancouver Island, wanted to bring a program to Saskatoon. Hoping to expand one retreat to year-long services, they soon opened support groups, workshops and a resource library.
Though all three women have since passed away, the organization now has 778 clients on file and helps more than 200 people pay for services each year.
Coordinator Donna Boyce is the only paid employee of the otherwise volunteer-run private charity. The group doesn’t receive government funding but has remained alive through the support of corporate and private donations.
This year marks the 19th anniversary of their race for recovery and their goal is to raise $70,000.
“All the money that’s raised here, stays here. We don’t have any mother ship in Vancouver or Toronto. The money that’s raised here goes right back to the cancer patients as quickly as possible,” Boyce said, adding the group specifically chose to fund current patients rather than research.
“The research, which is all well and good, is down the road. We want to be able to take care of the cancer patients now, the ones who are dealing with it now. When we have a budget of $120,000, for a research facility that’s nothing but for our clients that’s really something.”
But even with sponsors, the organization still needs to turn patients away and set a $4,000 limit on every client because money is tight.
Boyce said they contacted Health Minister Dustin Duncan to increase the amount of tax dollars that cover ostomy supplies.
But despite tight budgets, the organization has still helped hundreds of Saskatoon cancer patients like Poole. With her cancer in remission, the mother of six, grandmother of 15 and great grandmother of five said she can stop fixating on bills and focus on her family and garden.
Comments are closed.