From concert halls to hospitals: Family comes first for N.L. musician

Newfoundland-born musician Ken Tizzard has written ballads and odes for his wife Allison Edwards, but lately he's shown his love for her in a more visceral, immediate way.

After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis several years ago, Edwards began suffering from frequent and painful attacks. Tizzard put his touring schedule on hold and stayed home in Campbellford, Ont., to support her.
 
"For about 12 of the last 18 months, she's been bedridden, for the most part, so it's been hard for me to tour like I wanted to," he said.

Edwards's medication wasn't working, Tizzard said, so the couple met with a neurologist to discuss a bone marrow stem cell transplant, a rare treatment that aims to reboot the immune system and prevent attacks on the brain and spinal cord caused by MS.

'A crazy whirlwind'

In late March, they got the encouraging news that Edwards would be able to get the transplant.

"We got a call two weeks before we had to come to Ottawa, saying, 'You've been accepted to this program,'" he said.

"[It's] been a crazy whirlwind of moving to Ottawa, finding a place to live here for six months to a year, taking care of our daughters … and on top of all that, going through a stem cell bone marrow transplant, which at the easiest of times is a walk through hell and back."

Tizzard said the chemotherapy, antibody and enzyme treatments kill off the immune system before the transplant. After having the procedure in early June, Edwards is doing well. 

"Her white blood cells and hemoglobin started coming up and she can now actually start to heal her body, which will take six months to a year," he said. 

"But the doctors are really positive. They're saying that she's a model example of how this treatment can work."

Through it all, Tizzard has been getting up early and spending the day at the hospital with Edwards until late at night, then doing it all again the following day.

"It's a pretty crazy experience. It's been a little bit like Groundhog Day for both of us," he said.

Outpouring of support

With Edwards receiving treatment and Tizzard supporting her, the family is still figuring things out financially. 

Tizzard said the community of Campbellford has rallied around them, and there's been an outpouring of support online.

"It was weird at first, and then I said, 'I have to embrace it because I really have no other way to make money otherwise,'" he said. 

"But the amount of support that I've been receiving from people … I get hundreds of emails a day, and messages on Facebook and Instagram and all that stuff from people who have been watching our journey, just sending words of encouragement."

After years of performing as a singer/songwriter and in groups like the Watchmen and Thornley, Tizzard said, it's strange to be on the receiving end of a benefit concert.

He joined a benefit in Toronto that included the Watchmen, Holly McNarland and the Skydiggers and to support his wife and family. 

"I've been blessed to work with a lot of really great people over the years, and it's interesting, when these things happen, people like to help out," he said.

"I think musicians especially, we understand that at the best of times, we're living on a shoestring, let alone having to take six months or a year."

Tizzard said he has written some music for a new album, and hopes to be able to perform music from his recent record of Ron Hynes songs back home in Newfoundland and Labrador sometime soon.

In the meantime, he'll be supporting his wife and is hopeful for her future health.

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