For three years, Garry Holmlund has followed his wife Brenda every step of the way during her cancer treatment trips from Tumbler Ridge to Prince George.
He’s been her backbone of support to help her through the tough days when chemotherapy and radiation treatments for lung cancer at the BC Cancer Centre for the North left her feeling sick, weak and tired. He’s been there to do what he can to help while she recovered her strength at the adjacent Kordyban Lodge, where they met people they knew from their hometown who were there for the same reason.
Until a few months ago he had no idea he was about to become part of the club nobody wants to join.
Last January, after days of pain behind his nose, ear and above his throat and difficulty opening his jaw, Garry went to the medical clinic in Tumbler Ridge, then to the hospital in Dawson Creek. After two trips to Vancouver for more tests it was confirmed he had nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a rare type of cancer that occurs in a hard-to-reach area of the skull behind the nose and above the throat.
“That was such a shocker, when they mentioned the word cancer I couldn’t believe it,” said Garry. “Cancer didn’t run in the family and I always thought I was good and healthy. All the symptoms for this type of cancer, I didn’t have. One of them was if you smoked or if you work around chemicals, well I never did any of that. I was pretty well always out in the fresh air. It was pretty well progressed by the time they found it was cancer.”
Shortly after he was diagnosed, Garry received his first radiation treatments at the cancer clinic next to UHNBC. The pain in his head stopped in March, as soon as he had his first round of chemotherapy, but his fight continues. His current radiation (five sessions per week) will last seven weeks and he’ll receive chemo once a week during that time. The radiation targets his face from the area from the top of his ears to the base of his neck, leaving his throat feeling raw and his skin feeling sunburnt.
“You can kind of tell, where the hair pulls out,” said the 74-year-old retired geologist. “My taste buds are just completely fried. I’m told most of that will come back.
“You’re not supposed to lose any weight, so you have to keep shoving stuff down your throat. So far, the swallowing hasn’t been that bad, but that lack of taste is the worst. The food looks good but you put it in your mouth and it’s just nothing, absolutely dead.”
Brenda, 68, learned she had cancer three years ago. She lost 40 pounds after taking her initial round of radiation and chemotherapy and knows exactly what Garry is going through, having temporarily lost her own sense of taste. While he was receiving his fifth week of treatments this month she was undergoing a procedure in the hospital to investigate a tumour pressing against her esophagus, which makes eating difficult. She says her treatments are no longer working like they once did.
“Going through the treatment, it takes a lot, it robs a lot,” she said. “I was a GIS computer mapper and I used to paint with acrylics and a lot of that has been taken.
“Even my eyes. I’ve been a reader all my life. I used to sneak into school when I was five years old because that’s what I wanted to do was read, and they would bring me home. My eyesight has been changing for four of five years and now I can’t read. My eyes have had an optic shift. I don’t know what caused that.”
Since it first opened in February 2013, the Kordyban Lodge has provided a home-away-from-home for cancer patients and their caregivers during treatments. The 18 immaculately-kept guest rooms are only a few steps away from the cancer clinic. The lodge provides its guests a level of comfort and community a hotel stay cannot replicate.
“I don’t know what we’d do without a place like this to come to,” said Garry, fighting back tears. “(Brenda) can’t be here all the time. One big thing is the affordability and it’s just such a friendly atmosphere here, it’s not like a hotel. The atmosphere they create makes it so much nicer to go through it.
“Usually right after the treatment it’s not too bad, but after the chemo it usually takes two or three days and that’s when it really hits you,” he said. “You don’t feel good and in my case I get so weak and so tired. It’s kind of up and down. You can be fine one day and even several times a day you can be up and down.”
Subsidized by the Canadian Cancer Society’s Piece of Mind fundraising campaign, which nearly halved the daily room rate to $31.50 per person, guests get their room and three homecooked meals with snacks throughout the day. They can shoot a game of pool, get out the cards to play crib, or build jigsaw puzzles, sharing laughs with people who are all there for the same reason.
“I’ve met a lot of people from my hometown, Tumbler Ridge, and I didn’t know they had cancer,” said Brenda. “I made new friends and got to know all the workers, and the cook and the cleaners. It really is a secure place and I enjoyed staying here.”
Kordyban manager Asta Sanders-Glembotzki has worked at the lodge since its inception and she says it’s not all that unusual to see couples each battling their own types of cancer, each trying to regain their health at the same time. She admires the courage of the Holmlunds to keep up that fight.
“It’s actually happened quite a few times,” she said. “It makes cancer kind of scary to see how many people have it. It’s getting more and more so that couples come together for treatment.”
Due to the pandemic, the lodge was closed for more than three months. It reopened on July 6, operating at half-capacity with one guest/caregiver per room. Everybody has to wear a mask and visitors are screened with a series of questions and are subject to a hand sanitizing and body temperature checks upon arrival. Usually guests are paired with other cancer patients but new protocols are in place to give everybody their own room to minimize the threat of the virus spreading. All indoor common areas are off-limits. The volunteer staff of 30 have been told to stay home, as have the volunteer drivers from the Freemasons, who had been providing a free shuttle service to and from the lodge.
The rooms were built with private donations and the sponsors of each room are commemorated on a plaque that hangs by each of the doors. Brenda has stayed at the Kordyban several times and always appreciates the efforts of the staff to provide comfort for the guests.
“You want a safe place,” she said. “The rooms are comfortable, the grounds and the furniture are nice and there’s artwork all over the place. It feels like a place that’s been put together well. I have a good feeling about this place and the workers and just everybody here. I’ve met so many people. The companionship is the biggest thing.
“Cancer strikes everybody. When Garry got it I just felt sick. I’ve never been one to panic, but I just couldn’t bear to think about it. If I did I would just break down and cry. I’m not in denial now and we’re doing OK. It’s just one day at a time. But when I know he’s here, there’s just a lot less to worry about. I know he’s better here and I’m grateful for that.”
