North Bay mother travels to Ottawa to advocate for better cancer care and treatment

A mother from North Bay is urging both the federal and provincial governments to increase support for families living with cancer.

Renee Meyer is an advocate and volunteer with the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), and a caregiver for her 12-year-old daughter Ava, who has lived with a brain tumour since she was a baby. 

As a part of CCS's Daffodil Month, held annually in April during Cancer Awareness Month, Meyer, along with a group of volunteers and advocates, travelled to Parliament Hill this week. 

They shared stories and spoke with government officials about the need for better cancer care and treatment.

"Every year, we come up with a few top advocacy points." she explained.

"There's many different aspects of cancer treatments that we want to change. We can't change everything at once, so we pick a few top points." 

One of the main points raised is the need to make changes to the Canada Caregiver Credit, to reimburse caregivers for travel costs when patients are seeking treatment.

They propose making this credit refundable, ensuring that caregivers, regardless of income or location, can receive a $1,500 tax reimbursement.

"We know a lot of times, like your gas, your food when you're traveling for these treatments are not covered, and a lot of those costs are out of pocket," she said, speaking from personal experience. 

Other advocacy points include implementing restrictions on e-cigarettes flavours and adding warning labels on alcohol products. 

"So we think it's important to educate Canadians on how to better take care of themselves and improve their health. So, like how cigarette packages have the warning labels, we'd like that transferred over to alcohol products as well.

More investment in cancer data

While healthcare falls under provincial jurisdiction, Meyer stressed that the provincial and federal governments need to work together to change policies that could help patients and invest in more cancer data collection. 

"The more data that we have, the more we're informed to make better decisions."

Data collection varies from province to province. 

For instance, Meyer mentioned that due to lack of centralized data, the Canadian Cancer Society has to individually contact hospices and palliative care facilities to ascertain bed availability.  

Therefore, streamlining data collection across provinces would simplify the process of assisting Canadians facing cancer and their caregivers.

Without research, we can't get better at treating cancer and come up with better treatments for it.- Renee Meyer, North Bay mother of cancer patient

"Ava actually teaches doctors," Meyer said.

She is part of a research study on neurofibromatosis — a term describing genetic diseases that lead to increased risk of developing tumours — to see how to better help patients going through it.

"Without research, we can't get better at treating cancer and come up with better treatments for it.

"The more that us as caregivers and cancer patients share our story, we're letting people know that they're not alone and that there's support. If you need a financial assistance, this may help you. If you need emotional assistance, this may help you as well." 

Meyer emphasized the importance of initiating conversations about cancer, as it enables individuals to access the financial and emotional support systems and identify areas for improvement in cancer care.

"Nobody likes to talk about cancer. But the more that we talk about cancer, the less it becomes a difficult conversation."