A B.C. girl who has terminal most cancers spoke out on Wednesday about how she feels the province’s health-care system is overloaded and desires assist.
Sara Gilooly mentioned that whereas ready for checks to be carried out, her most cancers unfold from her breasts to her lungs and her bones.
“My most cancers story started in Might,” Gilooly mentioned.
“I simply had obtained a significant surgical procedure. And I felt a lump a few week later in my breast. And it was enormous.”
After a mammogram, an ultrasound and a biopsy, it was decided that Gilooly had breast most cancers.
“At that time, we pushed the panic button,” she mentioned.
“My household referred to as docs, pals, households. We even reached out to a hospital in Türkiye to see what their ideas have been. Inside a couple of days, they gave us a full record of the issues that they might do and the checks that they run to verify if I had metastatic most cancers — how massive my tumours have been, what was occurring, one thing that the Canadian system didn’t sadly do.”
Gilooly mentioned she stayed on the breast most cancers centre in Abbotsford, the place the employees have been questioning and the surgeon was nice and he or she was informed after her surgical procedure that every thing regarded good. She had clear margins and no lymph node involvement.
She mentioned the hospital in Türkiye did ask for some pathology, together with a marker for the Ki-67 protein, which exhibits how briskly most cancers cells divide.
“This, I want I might have gotten right here and I want that sufferers any longer can get one thing like this as a result of in the event that they noticed this with my tumour grade being three and my age of 40 — I had simply turned 40 — they might have recognized that the most cancers cells are going to be aggressive,” Gilooly mentioned.
“Ladies with most cancers which can be identified of their 20s, 30s, and 40s sometimes have a a lot greater, rather more aggressive kind of most cancers.”
Gilooly mentioned she requested about getting a PET scan, a CT scan and an MRI, however was informed she didn’t want it they usually didn’t wish to put extra radiation in her physique.
“I used to be conflicted,” she mentioned.
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“I understood what they meant by the radiation, however to me, I didn’t perceive why we weren’t on the lookout for extra issues. After I requested after I was going to fulfill with my oncologist, it was going be two months out.”
Gilooly mentioned that just about every thing she requested for, she obtained pushback from the system.
“I’m all for advocating for myself, and I’m fairly good at it, however it’s a full-time job and it feels exhausting once you’re already emotionally drained from getting horrible information reminiscent of most cancers,” she mentioned.
Gilooly added that she obtained numerous help from the Self-Administration Well being Coach Programme on the College of Victoria and he or she even reached out to the Mayo Clinic in the US.
“I simply actually needed to know what different folks have been doing and what different nations have been doing, as a result of I felt like our system was simply letting me down a bit of bit,” she mentioned.
“Despite the fact that the docs and surgeons have been superb, it was the wait instances that actually, actually bugged me. And I’m a doer, I can’t simply sit nonetheless. So I did the most effective I might. The system stored telling me I wasn’t a precedence as a result of all my margins have been clear.”
When she lastly did see an oncologist, Gilooly mentioned she was disillusioned to search out out that one of many checks she had requested for hadn’t even been achieved, although she felt it might have been requested whereas she waited.
When that check got here again, it confirmed a excessive danger of the most cancers returning.
Gilooly bought a CT scan, a PET scan and an MRI they usually all discovered one thing.
“In November, it got here again as metastatic within the lungs,” she mentioned.
“And I’m grateful for my oncologist and that she trusted her instincts and he or she acted as a result of with out her saying these checks have to be achieved, I might have gone by way of the remedy and nonetheless had metastatic breast most cancers.”
Gilooly mentioned she will’t assist however assume that the little remedy she had from July to November might have made a distinction in her end result.
“Our system is overloaded,” she mentioned.
“Our docs, our sufferers, our nurses, our central diagnostics, they’re all overloaded they usually urgently need assistance.
“I did every thing I used to be informed, I waited, I trusted, I attempted to advocate for myself. I ponder nonetheless if I ought to have left, if I ought to have gone to Türkiye, or if I ought to have gotten to a unique hospital. Part of me is glad that I bought to spend time with my neighborhood, with my pals, and particularly my household.
“However now I’m questioning, is that this going to forestall me from spending extra time with them? Lives depend upon us serving to and altering the system. And I hope that collectively all of us can.”
Unbiased MLA Amelia Boultbee says Gilooly’s story isn’t distinctive.
“British Columbians misplaced their lives in 2025 on wait lists, and over 25,000 folks in the identical time interval needed to go away the province simply to get medical care,” she mentioned.
“So that is, sadly, a large, systemic downside.”
International Information reached out to the B.C. Well being Ministry and BC Most cancers for remark however didn’t obtain a response by deadline.
