Cancer centre opens in Red Deer
Calgary — Premier Alison Redford unveiled a new cancer centre in Red Deer on Wednesday, saying the facility will help patients in nearby communities get treatment closer to home.
“It supports this community, it supports families, it supports people across central Alberta,” Redford said.
The $46-million central Alberta Cancer Centre is about four times as large as the old space in Red Deer, and has two linear accelerators to provide radiation therapy, with room for a third in the future.
It offers radiation therapy, outpatient clinics and a medical day unit.
For cancer patients in the area, the new centre means they won’t have to log hundreds of kilometres travelling to either Calgary or Edmonton to get radiation treatment.
Red Deer resident Kim Rideout was 44 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2012. After finishing chemotherapy, the 16 rounds of radiation she needed meant driving back and forth to Calgary, smack in the middle of the worst of winter’s weather.
“I was fighting cancer, but I also felt like I was fighting Mother Nature, and it was exhausting because she always won,” said Rideout. “I didn’t have an option of not going because my life depended on it.”
She said the new centre will spare other community members the added stress during cancer treatment.
Dr. Paul Grundy, Alberta Health Services’ head of cancer control, hailed the treatment centre as a major improvement for local patients. He also noted the centre will help ease some of the capacity problems burdening Calgary and Edmonton’s busy, overcrowded centres.
The Red Deer facility is the latest link in the province’s plan to develop a cancer care corridor in Alberta to allow patients to receive radiation therapy and other treatment in smaller centres rather than travelling to the major cancer hubs in Calgary and Edmonton.
A Lethbridge centre opened in 2010, while a facility in Grande Prairie is about two years away, said Redford.