An effort to make lives a little easier for local people who struggle with cancer has led Karen Wilson to enter her idea in an online contest, and now she is looking for the support of the area.
In an overview which she has placed online Wilson explained her idea.
“We live in a rural community in British Columbia. Highways are often closed in both directions regardless of the season due to avalanches, landslides, accidents, etc. Unfortunately, many of our residents have had to battle cancer. In order to receive treatment patients must travel a minimum of three hours to access vital care such as chemotherapy. I would like to have funding for trained medical staff to visit our community twice per month to provide cancer related services. Winning this community funding would make a huge impact on the quality of life of those battling the disease for whom travel is extremely difficult and sometimes not possible.”
Wilson has entered her idea into a Avian Community Fund which is an annual competition which contributes $1,000,000 to create positive change in communities across Canada.
After finding the competition online Wilson started thinking about something that would benefit the whole community.
Wilson was inspired, not only by her family’s experience, but also by hearing stories from other families who have had to drive for hours to receive treatment.
“Chemo makes you really sick. We have done the trip there and back a number of times and it is pretty hard to drive back and watch your partner be incredibly ill,” she said.
She added that in her opinion the finances of the current situation do not add up as well.
“Financially it makes more sense to have one person coming here rather than a whole bunch of people going in the other direction,” she said.
Admittedly Wilson realizes there will still be hurdles to get over even if the vote goes in the towns favour but she is hopeful people will go online to cast a vote.
She has received online support from across Canada which means there will be more of a chance to possibly end up receiving some monetary reward.
People have until Oct. 15 to vote and can do so daily at www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf14530. Also check out Chemo in our Community on Facebook. To vote you will have to register on the AVIVA site.
“It is a minute of your time and 30 seconds a day to get something great in our community that people could benefit from,” Wilson said.
