Mary Kordyban thanked the provincial government for a contribution of $2 million to Prince George's cancer lodge, and she thanked local MLAs Pat Bell and Shirley Bond for keeping a secret for the past six years.
The secret was revealed Thursday at a gathering at the Two Rivers Art Gallery when dozens of dignitaries and well-wishers met to hear the announcement from the B.C. Ministry of Health that the provincial taxpayer was matching the $2 million pledge already made by the Mary Kordyban Foundation.
While it was reported this spring that Kordyban was making this donation on behalf of her husband, the late William Kordyban, what was not known until Friday was how the famed lumber family used this donation to launch the Prince George cancer lodge concept - six years ago.
"The Kordyban's contribution to the cancer lodge was really the catalyst... the seed money that brought us to today," said Bell at the event.
The pledge was brought to him and Bond (then Minister of Health) behind closed doors back in 2005. It was such a significant amount of money that it became the magnet the government and Canadian Cancer Society officials needed to attract the full amount that is now gathering to make the Kordyban Lodge a reality.
"It's an unbelievable story," said Bond. "It was not enough to have a cancer centre of the north... You need to make sure there is a home when people come here with their families for treatment."
Bas Rynsewyn knows excruciatingly well how important a cancer lodge is. He told those gathered at the ceremony how he and his family had to hear the news that he had cancer inside his tongue (a third of his tongue had to be removed). He had been an actor, and his last public speaking commitment before surgery was delivering the eulogy at his father's funeral.
All this was on his shoulders when he went to Vancouver for his treatment, which allowed him to live and in fact still speak clearly.
"Anyone who has to go through that ordeal will have such a positive experience [staying at the Kordyban Lodge], they can't do anything but heal," he said, stressing the importance for the patient and family to have a place of refuge during that time of trauma.
Kordyban celebrated the event by looking back on the six years it took from her foundation's pledge to now.
"The government's contribution of $2 million, matching the Mary Kordyban Foundation's donation, is awesome," she said, to a round of laughter and applause. "It certainly shows great support for Northern B.C.'s families."
The money will be put towards the $10 million total cost for the lodge, which will begin construction in July and is scheduled for completion at the same time as the cancer clinic next door, in the fall of 2012.
