I am a cancer survivor and have been waging a war for life for the past two years.
I just moved here a year ago so don’t really know too many folks. I moved because I felt it had a sense of community.
As a second type of treatment was upon me and being two weeks into it. I was getting tired of the driving.
I have to drive five days a week for a 1.5 hour treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. The whole thing is three hours in the hospital with all the protocols.
I was falling asleep on the drive home. No help. Fatigue is the major side effect of the treatment. These four human angels showed up and rescued me. They drove me and waited for me. In the car at times, we were four with the driver, all with conditions needing some type of help.
Well these angels delivered the goods. I could sleep on my way to Vancouver General Hospital and back. That’s how heavy the treatment hits you. You just knock out. I was getting dangerous at the wheel. The stress of the drive alone was very draining. For the treatments, we have to be on time. I waited six months to get into radiation treatment and this was with a stage 4 cancer. I again waited to get into hyperbaric treatment.
These angels are volunteers.
They raise the money to cover costs associated with all the trips to the different BC Cancer Agency Specialty centres. Costs include gas and parking in the city and sometimes food. These angels fill a much needed gap when the system fails cancer patients and many others with no travel services covered. But the Squamish community has it’s own solutions. Only in a true community would you find true people who say: we can do this. We will help you. Squamish angels, I call them.
They took it over, they made it happen through another umbrella organization in Squamish.
- Pierre Hébert — in the back seat
Squamish
