The Western Nova Scotia Cancer Support Network will soon reach 10 thousand members.
Founder Derek Lesser says the group’s name was changed following a meeting yesterday with the Yarmouth Hospital Foundation.
“The meeting went really well and we were talking about what our strategy was and one of the questions that came up was how many people the radiation unit would serve and we realized that we’re talking about this entire end of the province. A light bulb went off at that point and we realized that we’d named it, early on, the Yarmouth Cancer Support Network and realized that wasn’t inclusive of what the group need to be so we decided at that point that the best move would be to re-brand and change the name to include all the areas in this end of the province.”
Lesser says it shows just how many people are affected by cancer and underlines the definite need for a radiation unit in Yarmouth.
“People have joined because they know it’s an issue, it affects them or they know it could become an issue for them.”
The Western Nova Scotia Cancer Support Network has petitions throughout the region asking the government to improve cancer services.
“It’s a little hard to track (how many people have signed) because there’s so many people printing them off and taking them to different places. We won’t really know until September 1st. Our goal would be if people are willing to print copies off and bring them to locations and pick them up by September 1st then we can arrange the data, to bring them together at one location. I’ve talked to a number of people and I think the numbers are going to be very promising. I’m not sure which MLA hopefully take that to the House (House of Assembly), but I’m sure any of them will. It’s a democratic process and we have the support of our local MLA.”
The Western Nova Scotia Cancer Support Network can be found on Facebook.