Insensitive ad angers cancer patients

Hospital takes down funeral home signage after complaint

Cancer patients and their families receiving treatment at a Barrie hospital were left “furious” after an ad for a funeral home greeted them on the gates of the hospital parking lot.

Lori Waltenbury, 29, was taking her aunt for her second chemotherapy treatment when she saw the ad wrapped around the parking gate at the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVRHC).

Waltenbury’s aunt noticed it over a week earlier and Waltenbury said “she was really disheartened” by it.

She and her aunt told several nurses in the hospital on Thursday, but said “no one could see our point. They just thought we were being ridiculous.”

It wasn’t until Waltenbury shared an image of the ad on the gate on Facebook on Thursday that she got a response from the hospital.

A hospital communications representative, Donna Danyluk, couldn’t say how long the sign was up before it was removed, but said it was taken down “in 20 minutes” after it was discovered on Facebook.

In a Facebook post, the hospital apologized and admitted it was wrong, calling the placement of the ad “insensitive and short-sighted.”

Waltenbury, whose father also received cancer treatment at the same hospital, said the placement of the ad “really surprised (me) because it’s such a lovely hospital.”

The ad at the centre of the upset was for Adams Funeral Home and Cremation Services, whose owner, Doug Adams, had no idea about the ad’s placement.

“I am extremely sorry that I have offended people,” said Adams in an email to Waltenbury.