|
Agency's new program brings follow-up care for Southern Interior patients closer to home
Sindi Hawkins Golf Charity donations to BC Cancer Foundation fund launch of new outreach program in Kelowna for leukemia/bone marrow transplant patients
October 21, 2005, Kelowna, BC - The BC Cancer Foundation and the BC Cancer Agency, together with the Hon. Sindi Hawkins, MLA Kelowna-Mission, announced the launch of a new outpatient clinic for leukemia/bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients in B.C.'s Southern Interior, in Kelowna today.
The BC Cancer Agency's Leukemia/BMT Outreach Program, one of the first of its kind in North America, will bring doctors from Vancouver to Kelowna to assess new leukemia patients and provide follow-up care. Once established, the pilot project will be expanded to include the opening of outreach clinics at other key locations in the province.
Until now, treatment for leukemia/BMT patients has been centered in Vancouver. However, more than 60 per cent of leukemia and bone marrow transplant patients live outside the Lower Mainland, and must travel great distances to Vancouver for initial diagnosis and treatment, as well as for follow-up care, which can last for years or even decades afterward. For many patients this creates considerable economic and personal hardship.
"The new leukemia/BMT outreach program is going to change all that," said Dr. Clay Smith, director of the leukemia/BMT program at the BC Cancer Agency. "Doctors and nurses from Vancouver will travel once or twice a month to Kelowna and hopefully to other BC Cancer Agency centres around the province to help bring care to people in their local communities. Our hope is that this will help people return more quickly to their normal healthy lives with their families, work and friends and reduce the economic and personal strains that are always part of fighting an illness."
Other benefits of the outreach program include:
- improved local medical care in prevention and early management of medical problems, reducing serious complications, hospitalizations and expensive treatments
- reduced time away from families and work and reduced travel costs
- faster recoveries and improved overall health
- improved access to new medicines and treatments via increased province-wide clinical trials
Hawkins, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2004 and underwent bone marrow transplant surgery, thanked BC Cancer Foundation donors who supported the pilot program with donations to the Sindi Hawkins and Friends Charity Golf Classic for Cancer Care. Hawkins has committed $50,000 a year for five years to the program through her annual charity golf tournament.
"I know how important it is to be at home with family and friends. This will help improve the quality of life and recovery after a bone marrow transplant," Hawkins said. "I am grateful to everyone who has supported this pilot project because it will help ease the unexpected journey that many patients and families face."
Cynthia Waldek-Peters, BC Cancer Foundation director of development for the Southern Interior said, "The BC Cancer Foundation is extremely grateful for the generosity and support of Sindi Hawkins and Friends Charity Golf Classic and the funds it has raised to help the BC Cancer Agency provide follow-up expertise to long-term survivors. Gifts to the BC Cancer Foundation will continue to support cancer research and enhancements to care at the BC Cancer Agency here in the Southern Interior and throughout B.C."
The BC Cancer Agency's regional administrator in Kelowna, Sandra Broughton added, "We are extremely pleased to have been selected as B.C.'s first site for the program and look forward to enhancing the care and lives of those bone marrow transplant patients residing in the Okanagan and neighbouring communities."
An estimated 1,000 British Columbians are long-term leukemia survivors. Approximately 400 to 500 new patients are diagnosed each year.
The BC Cancer Foundation is an independent charitable organization that raises funds to support research and care at the BC Cancer Agency, throughout British Columbia.
The BC Cancer Agency is an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority. Its mission is to reduce the incidence of cancer, reduce the mortality rate of people with cancer, and improve the quality of life of those living with cancer.
|
