Fundraiser planned to help in cancer fight
It’s expensive to fight for your life.
Certainly, the value of a life is priceless. But the reality for Amberley and Phil Secord of St. Catharines is that staying alive is costing them a lot of money.
Especially when the realities of life like mortgage and car payments don’t care if you’re sick.
Phil has been fighting a rare and stubborn leukemia for a year and a half. Most recently, he has been receiving a treatment at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, with a drug so new it doesn’t yet have a name. Identified only as 200200, the drug is given at no cost to the couple.
It’s everything else that has a price. Travel. Accommodations. Additional drugs needed that are not covered by health plans.
A couple of weeks into treatment, Phil, 31, was diagnosed with pneumonia and an infection that bubbled the skin on his hands and got into his lungs. Medication to make him well again, was not covered by provincial or private health plans. Price tag, $3,800.
Doctors recommended the couple stay in Toronto, near the hospital, especially while he’s being treated for pneumonia and on the drug trial. They’re renting a condo at $4,700 a month, plus $20 a day elsewhere for parking. It’s less expensive than the alternative — staying in a hotel and paying for gas.
And now, they are faced with a $5,000 income tax payment, because not enough tax was taken from his sick leave benefits.
To help the couple pay for expenses, a fundraiser is set for Friday, April 28, at the St. Catharines Celtic Club. There will be a silent auction, band, and pizza for sale at $2 a slice. Admission is $5, and $1.25 from every alcoholic drink will be given to the couple.
It’s being organized by family — Amberley’s younger sister, Brandie Gaspich and Phil’s aunt, Laurene Bannister.
“It’s heartbreaking,” says Brandie. “I want to take as much stress off them as we can.”
The sisters are six years apart in age, but close in heart. Amberley’s strength is driven by love, she says.
“She finally found the person she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
“She internally has a obligation to take care of that person. Through sickness and health.” And lately, it’s been scary. The pneumonia is getting better, but there was a time when Amberley readied herself for the worst.
“It was absolutely terrifying. You think, oh my God, this is what’s going to take him out?” she says.
His blood pressure and pulse hovered dangerously low for a few days. And then, once again he pulled through.
“Yeah, he just seems to blow my mind quite often,” she says.
Doctors have also found micro lesions on his brain, she says. Tiny pinholes that bleed. He had been behaving oddly at home — once removing items from the kitchen pantry and placing them around the house, in places like closets and drawers. An MRI found the lesions.
The couple’s year-old daughter, Ellie, stays with them in Toronto three days a week. But because she’s not allowed in the hospital with Phil, Amberley’s mom, Kim Gaspich, stays with them to watch over Ellie. And her father, Bob Gaspich, stays in St. Catharines to watch over their house and dogs.
If not for family, all this would not be possible, says Amberley.
And if not for donations, the stress of finances would exacerbate an already trying and emotional time.
“We wouldn’t be here right now,” says Amberley. “My house would already be gone.” Cclock@postmedia.com