Cancer battles help shape Lyle Best’s philanthropy
Lyle Best was 19 years old and only married to his wife Priscilla for a short time when, at a friend’s swimming pool, an unusual mark was spotted on the back of her leg.
“A biopsy revealed it was malignant melanoma,” said Best. “It was a terrifying experience. Melanoma causes the majority of deaths related to skin cancer.”
Doctors performed surgery on Priscilla’s leg and said if she was cancer-free for five years, she’d be fine. The couple relaxed, moved to Alberta from Ontario in 1979 and Best later launched Quikcard, a very successful company specializing in benefit solutions for small businesses.
The couple and their three sons — Justin, Brandon and Aaron — thrived on an acreage outside St. Albert.
But 30 years later, Priscilla began feeling pain in her shoulder and discovered a bump on her head.
“We’d been renovating and thought she had pulled something,” said Best. “But tests revealed cancer had returned. Three days later, we found it had spread throughout her body. She was given three months to live.”
His wife was a private person who didn’t want outside intervention and accepted her fate, said Best.
“We turned the upstairs of our home into a mini-hospital,” he added. “She didn’t want visitors. I was taught at the Cross Cancer Clinic necessary procedures, such as giving drips and injections and watching for bed sores.
“We tried experimental drugs and homeopathic treatment. The only time she left home was to go for radiation treatment to kill the pain. I became almost robotic while giving morphine during those last few months.”
Priscilla took her last bite of food on Oct. 4, 2006, and died Jan. 7, 2007.
Best, a business leader and philanthropist, was cited as a model of community spirit, social responsibility and generosity when he received the Order of Canada. But while dealing with his wife’s illness, he felt there was no place he could turn.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself the morning after Priscilla died,” he said. “I’d been a 24/7 caregiver for six months.
“That’s why when I heard about Wellspring I decided I’d do all I could to help. I would have benefited by having people to talk to who were in a similar situation. Group support, art and cooking classes, meditation and relaxation would all have helped relieve some of the strain.”
Hopes are high a sod turning will be held in the next few months for Wellspring, a 7,000-square-foot, warm and inviting non-residential, homelike building near the University of Alberta’s Foote Field. The emphasis will be on the person, not on the illness.
People fighting cancer, survivors and their families will be invited to use Wellspring facilities — a library/media room, a playroom/classroom, peer support, a quiet room and an exercise and massage room.
A couple of months after his wife’s death, Best returned from a vacation and was planning a golf game in Priscilla’s name, and in support of the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation. He asked the dermatologist helping him to take a quick look at his back.
Dr. Barry Lycka said he thought Best had a form of cancer that could be easily treated. He took a biopsy the next day.
“I was in Toronto to see Mark Messier being inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame the following day and Barry called and asked me to stop by his office on the way home,” said Best, a founder of the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation.
“It’s melanoma, isn’t it?” Best asked Lycka. “I was stunned when he said it was.”
He began treatment and didn’t want to tell his sons he had the same type of cancer that had killed their mother. But he was out of town when one took a phone call about a melanoma appointment.
“We held a conference call that night and I tried to reassure them,” said Best, who later believed speedy treatment had ended the cancer.
Two years later, he discovered the melanoma had returned and Dr. David Olson performed radical, aggressive surgery.
“My sons were even more concerned,” said Best. “The second time around for their mom didn’t end well. At first I was checked every three months and now it is six.
“I just wish the boys had been able to go to somewhere like Wellspring. It’s like a spa and they could have learned to paint or sculpt.”
Some 98 per cent of melanoma is preventable, said Best. Ironically, he adds, his wife wasn’t a sun worshipper and always used sunscreen.
Lawyer Sol Rolingher called Best the day after he’d been diagnosed for the second time and, not aware of his friend’s own concerns, asked for help with the Wellspring project.
Rolingher, his wife Marilyn and friends Glenn Hundleby and his wife Marilyn had launched the Wellspring idea.
“I’ll work for the project as long as I am this side of the grass,” said Best. “Tommy Banks and his wife Ida and I cochair the capital campaign.”
Said Hundleby, a psychologist and businessman: “Our campaign plan was to raise $7 million. For construction, furnishings and to operate the facility for the first three years. “Some 75 per cent of the total cost has already been pledged and we are now just $2 million away from getting a shovel in the ground.”
Best said community help, corporate and individual is being sought. “We need to create a future where no one will have to face cancer alone.”