'Sad it's come to this,' says woman leaving the Yukon over lack of in-centre hemodialysis

A Whitehorse woman who's been travelling to B.C. each week for hemodialysis says she no longer has the energy to keep making the trip.

Dawn Jennings has lived in the Yukon for decades, but she's leaving the territory for Alberta this month because weekly travel to get hemodialysis in Vancouver has become too much.

"My life was and is and will always be in the Yukon," Jennings said. "So it's just very sad it's come to this."

Jennings was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. Complications from her illness led to kidney failure; once a couple of years ago and a second time last May. 

At that time, she was sent to Vancouver for treatment. She's been travelling back and forth to get regular hemodialysis ever since. 

That's because there's no in-centre hemodialysis in the Yukon. 

Jennings, 56, needs three dialysis treatments a week. She spends four days in Vancouver each week to get it.

Now Jennings is moving to Edmonton, where she grew up and can get regular hemodialysis treatments at a health centre.

Still, she says the decision to leave the Yukon has been a painful one.

"It breaks my heart," she said. "But I just have to, you know, soldier on and I have to do what's best for my overall health."

Petition presented in Yukon legislature

Jennings did not make her decision lightly. For months, she's been circulating a petition calling on the Yukon government to offer hemodialysis in a health-care facility.

Yukon NDP Leader Kate White presented Jennings's petition at the legislative assembly in March. At that time, she said it had more than 500 signatures. 

Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee maintained then that there are not enough people requiring hemodialysis in the Yukon to offer it at a local health-care facility.

As of March, 10 people in the territory undergo dialysis treatment at home, McPhee said. 

"Establishing services around insufficient patient numbers could result in substandard, unsafe, and unsustainable levels of care and can lead to difficulty in recruiting health care providers," McPhee said in March.

"This is not what we want for Yukon."

White said she was disappointed by that response, but it didn't come as a surprise, and she had prepared Jennings for that answer.

"It's an awful thing for someone like me to have to tell them, 'Look, you have to tone down your expectations, because they're not going to say yes to this,'" White said.

"I would say that if one family can be kept whole, or one community can be kept whole by having this treatment available in the territory, then to me it's worth it."

The renewed Confidence and Supply Agreement between the NDP and the governing Liberals includes a promise to "consider" the Northwest Territories' model for dialysis. In-centre hemodialysis is available there in both Yellowknife and Hay River.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Yukon government said BC Renal supports people in the territory who need dialysis or kidney transplants. The statement says BC Renal's guidelines do not recommend developing a hemodialysis centre in the Yukon.

At-home dialysis not feasible, Jennings says

Right now, the Yukon provides travel money for patients who need to fly to get dialysis. It also covers the cost of training for patients and their family or friends to administer the treatment themselves at home. 

The Kidney Foundation of Canada has said at-home treatment is an effective alternative to in-centre dialysis. But Jennings, who lives alone, says it doesn't feel safe or feasible for her to do the treatment herself.

"It's just too overwhelming," she said. 

"I don't have anyone."

Jennings and her dog, Darla, will head to Edmonton at the end of the month. Still, she plans to keep pushing for change in the Yukon.

"We can't let this issue go," she said. "I hope to continue dealing with this and hopefully things change."