Improving cancer care at home
Hospital foundation partners with dealership to launch vehicle lottery
SYDNEY — Carrie Ann Maloney wasn't expected to make it more than a few weeks when she was diagnosed with stage four melanoma in 2018.
On Tuesday, she and her husband Troy stood quietly holding hands as a new fundraiser for the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation's Cancer Care Here at Home campaign was announced at Colbourne Ford in Sydney.
“Being stage four, I am going to need treatment for the rest of my life, so to be able to have those treatments at home is just amazing,” Maloney said.
“When you hear that you have cancer, the first thing is, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I going to do? Can I stay in Cape Breton? Do I have to leave?' So being able to stay in Cape Breton, I think, will impact everyone in a positive way.”
PROVIDING CARE AT HOME
The fundraiser — a vehicle lottery featuring a custom 2021 Bronco Outerbanks with a sport tent worth more than $65,000 as the top prize — will go to purchase equipment and fund patient support programming, research and innovation to take place in the new Cape Breton Cancer Centre currently under construction.
"This is a fun way for us to raise some money for a very serious cause,” said foundation CEO Paula MacNeil, adding the Cancer Care Here at Home campaign has reached $6.6 million of its $10 million goal.
One piece of equipment for which the hospital foundation has been lobbying for years is a positron emission tomography computed tomography (PET-CT) scanner.
MacNeil has said the foundation is fundraising for the $2-3 million purchase cost and that having the machine available in Sydney would keep up to 500 patients a year from having to travel to Halifax for a PET scan.
Maloney has made the trip to access the PET-CT scanner at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Science Centre “a few times” and remembers some “mishaps” during those travels, including driving through a snowstorm and almost missing her scan.
“There was another time where we were on our way to Halifax and they contacted us at our home (phone) number to say that my treatment was cancelled so we didn't know and when we got there they said it was cancelled and I wasn't sure if I was going to get that one,” she said.
“In our experience, a PET scan is definitely something we need here in Cape Breton.”
LIVING WITH CANCER
The 48-year-old mother of three had her first brush with cancer in 2016 when her doctor removed a mole on her back.
Two years later, extreme pain in her foot led her doctor to send her to Halifax for surgery to remove a tumour on her spine. A PET scan showed Maloney had 20 tumours in total: one in her arm, one in her leg, one in her lung, one on her spine and 16 in her brain.
After five rounds of radiation on her brain and on her spine, she started immunotherapy — a biological therapy that boosts the body's immune system to fight cancer cells — a treatment she will continue to receive throughout her life.
“I'm doing really well with the treatment that I have here. I'm not working at this time because right now I'm focused on my family and making sure that I'm staying healthy,” said Maloney, who said she and her husband of 25 years “were pretty much high school sweethearts.”
The couple adopted three biological siblings in 2012 who are now 23, 14, and 11.
“They are my greatest reason for battling (cancer) because we worked so hard to adopt these children to have a family and I'm not going to let cancer take over what I fought for my whole life,” Maloney said.
As his wife's support person, Troy Maloney is grateful for the treatments that have been available to them in Cape Breton and would like to see more with the expanded cancer centre, which is expected to be completed in 2024.
“It makes it so much easier — from packing up the children the day before, driving to Halifax and getting a hotel room, going to the treatment and returning back home – it would make a huge difference having (the PET-CT scanner) at the cancer centre here in Cape Breton,” he said.
GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
The hospital foundation partnered with Colbourne Ford for its first vehicle lottery fundraiser. In addition to the top prize, there will be an early bird prize drawn on June 19 for two tickets anywhere Westjet flies and other prizes.
“We all have our own personal stories about being impacted by cancer care — unfortunately, it does affect all of us,” said Brad Jacobs, general manager of Colbourne Auto Group and former CEO of the Cape Breton Hospital Foundation.
“If family members can get the care they need at home, that has a tremendous impact on people's lives — it decreases stress, decreases the financial stress of travelling, and decreases the time away from your family, so we are really humbled to be able to help support cancer patients and the community.”
Ticket sales close July 18 at midnight and the grand prize draw is the next day.
Tickets are $50 each or three for $120 and can be purchased at www.winabronco.ca.