The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
A Family Fun Night will help kick off the Relay for Life season this year. Set for Rotary Park tomorrow, the evening will have kids' events, fun for the whole family and a barbecue to kick-start the Relay for Life. The event will generate awareness of the Relay, a 12-hour event that will be held at the Creighton Ball Diamond on Sept. 7 and already has 19 teams registered. Teams as well as non-participants are encouraged to attend the Family Fun Night. Fighting Back The Relay for Life fights back against cancer as money and awareness are generated for the Canadian Cancer Society. Cancer continues to affect everyone in one way or another, and Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach are no exceptions. Through the Canadian Cancer Society, local families have received help and support. Flin Flonner Andy Burbidge was diagnosed with a brain tumour in May 2006 and had a craniotomy June 1 of the same year. Burbidge later underwent radiation and chemotherapy. With a new baby just days old, the Burbidge family went to the Winnipeg area for treatment. '...I could undergo my radiation in the morning and then try to conduct our lives as a young family in as normal a way as possible,' Burbidge wrote in a letter to Manitoba Finance Minister Stan Struthers as part of the Canadian Cancer Society Manitoba's (CCS-MB) effort to change the way oral chemotherapy drugs were paid for. Burbidge's letter told Struthers of the financial burden and struggle of patients paying for their own chemotherapy medication, at the request of Leslie Beck to support the CCS-MB effort. Explaining the details of his treatment and struggles, Burbidge explained at the end of September 2011 he felt the symptoms indicating the recurrence of the tumour. An MRI confirmed it. He underwent a second craniotomy in November 2011 and resumed taking a combination of medication. Burbidge's medication bill was $5,700 each month. With coverage under Pharmacare, like all Manitobans, his deductible was $21,000. '...so still with this coverage there is a huge financial obligation,' Burbidge wrote in his letter. Due to treatment dates, the Burbidge family was responsible for two deductibles, totaling $42,000. He goes on to explain to Struthers that if his medication had have been through intravenous, rather than oral, 'there would have been no pharmaceutical cost to my family.' Burbidge's distance from Winnipeg was also a factor in the cost of his treatment, as he was traveling to Winnipeg every 12 weeks. '....travel will always be a cost in my medical treatment, but less of a burden if Manitoba Health covered the cost of oral chemotherapies,' his letter read. Burbidge went on to explain that he and his wife own their own businesses _ Flin Flon Insurance Agency _ and slowing down is not in their future. Due to the nature of his illness, Burbidge says this would be the time to increase their savings. But they are not in a position to do so because they are paying for his chemotherapy, he wrote in his letter. '...and unless there are changes in the way that oral chemotherapy is dealt with, I will continue to pay for my treatment at the expense of my family's savings for their future.' The letter was sent to Struthers as well as Health Minister Theresa Oswald and the Canadian Cancer Society, Manitoba Division, in 2012. As a result of the CCS-MB efforts, the provincial budget included funding for oral chemotherapy, lessening the burden of future patients. Currently, Burbidge is stable and not requiring oral chemotherapy. 'But there will come a time in the future I will need it again,' he told The Reminder. The Burbidge family is one of many in the community fighting back against cancer. The Relay for Life this September will help raise money and awareness for their fight.
