Allan Wolfram never would have met his grandson if it weren鈥檛 for the treatment he received through clinical trials at BC Cancer-琉璃神社.
It was one of several stories the audience heard at an event that saw the Bannister family of 琉璃神社 donate $1.5 million to the BC Cancer Foundation.
鈥淚鈥檓 certainly grateful to the staff here, they basically saved my life,鈥� Wolfram added.
Wolfram had esophageal cancer which had spread and caused a tumour in his brain.
Weeks after treatment the tumour shrunk and the cancer in his esophagus was gone.
鈥淪o yeah, clinical trials are important,鈥� he said.
Wolfram鈥檚 story resonated with the Bannister family.
鈥淥ur family has been touched by cancer,鈥� said Chad Bannister, Bannister Automotive Group. 鈥淢y grandpa passed away from prostrate cancer, my mom鈥檚 dad had colon cancer and survived, my wife had thyroid cancer, I鈥檝e had skin cancer.鈥�
Bannister said some of his employees and their families are also dealing with cancer.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e in a position to help make that treatment better and let our staff and let the community focus more on health, then that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e doing.鈥�
Bannister鈥檚 father, Lyn, added that stories such as Wolfram鈥檚 need to be heard.
鈥淎ll this money is being spent on cancer research and people think nothing is happening and you come to an event like this and you realize there are things happening. You listen to Allan, I mean that鈥檚 a helluva story. People don鈥檛 hear them enough I don鈥檛 think.鈥�
The Bannister鈥檚 donation will go towards creating a new, state-of-the-art systemic therapy suite at BC Cancer-琉璃神社.
It will help meet the growing demand for cancer treatments in the Interior, and provide the infrastructure to bring early phase clinical trials to 琉璃神社 for the first time.
While BC Cancer-琉璃神社 does conduct some clinical trials, once the therapy suite is operating, it opens to door to more and varied trials.
鈥淭he earlier clinical trials, we have to be really careful about what impacts they might have on the patients who are participating, so you need better monitoring capability,鈥� said Dr. Ross Halperin, executive medical director.
The new therapy suite will have that capability, he explained.
鈥淭he data from patients like Allan will inform us and make a therapy that wasn鈥檛 available as standard therapy before, and a clinical trial proves that it ought to be standard therapy.鈥�
Dr. Halperin added that the Bannister family鈥檚 gift will have an incredible impact on how patients will be treated in 琉璃神社.
Once completed, the therapy suite will serve cancer patients in the Interior.
鈥淚f there are trials that are only available in 琉璃神社, people from all across the province will then be travelling to access those treatments,鈥� said Pardeep Khrod, associate vice-president, of BC Cancer Foundation.
The donation is the largest gift to date for the $6.1 million project.
Construction is expected to start in spring 2024 and take approximately 18 months.
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