MAKING A DIFFERENCE, ONE BACKPACK AT A TIME

You hear and see the expression – ‘Cancer Sucks’ all the time. Like most things in life though, until you

actually hear the words and experience the treatments, you can never truly understand how much it

sucks. It sucks the life out of you. It beats down your will. Everyone’s cancer journey is different. No

two are the same (there may be similarities, but everyone is different). There are billions of dollars

being spent on research to get to the bottom of cancer and there are continual advancements in

treatments, prolonging the lives of cancer patients. The dilemma for many cancer warriors ultimately

becomes the balance between quality of life and longevity.

Probably one of the hardest journeys is Chemotherapy treatments. Literally the infusion of a chemical

soup (you could argue poison) to battle those dastardly cancer cells attacking every bone and organ in

your body. Chemotherapy cancer patients get ports put in to facilitate the injection of the chemicals.

You sit in a chair for hours watching this chemical soup pumping into your veins knowing all sorts of side

effects (nausea, loss of taste and appetite, aches and pains, the list goes on). You get the chills. There is

no colder place to be. Nursing staff are amazing and do their best to make you as comfortable as

possible, but it’s an impossible task. You are left alone in the chair with only your mind to drift into far

off places. Just like an executioner’s chair. There is no lonelier place to be.

Any dose of support. Any lending hand is a welcome hand for such a lonely place. For that reason, Sea

Wolves Men’s Cancer produce and supply Chemotherapy backpacks that are distributed to Vancouver

Island and BC Oncology centres to be given to men in their time of need and to break the loneliness.

Each backpack contains comfort items specifically designed to help counter the side effects of

chemotherapy and time spent in ‘that/the’ chair. We want it to become a chair of hope and not despair.

We want men to know they are not alone on their journey and quest.

Each backpack contains: a water bottle, electrolytes, lip balm, hand lotion, Ginger chews (for nausea),

Toque, Blanket, Note book (for journaling), Wipes, slippers, reading book. In time of need, many/most

men tend to shelter and isolate instead of reaching out for help and support. We hope this small

gesture helps breakdown their isolation and let’s them know they’re not alone. We hear from many

oncology centre nursing staff how thankful they are to have men specific items to give as they get many

support items for women. We received a note from a local chemotherapy patient as he was receiving

his treatment: ‘They’re handing out your backpacks in the clinic right now! Many Happy Faces in the

room’. This kind of feedback light’s up our room.

Recently when delivering backpacks to another cancer center, one of the nurses told us the following

story: “Hi guys, thank you so much for supporting our male patients and for being leaders in our

community. I recently had the privilege to be providing chemo for an older gentleman when he received

his Seawolves backpack. He is a very kind and lovely man and was willing to humor us by accepting it,

but he thought that he had to buy it from us. When he understood that not only was the backpack and

its wonderful contents a gift, but that it was a gift of support from other local men who had faced

cancer, his entire demeanor changed. He was absolutely blown away by the both the gift and by the

offer of fellowship that went with it. Thank you for providing this gift of support for men facing cancer

and for allowing us to participate in handing out the packs to our patients. RN, Cancer Care, CR

Hospital”.

Each backpack costs approximately $150 to produce. Backpacks are assembled by volunteers, many

cancer patients themselves. We have recently had local merchants also step up to help supply some of

the materials to help our funding efforts go further to help more men. All backpacks are prepared and

distributed with care, hoping to help men with their individual battles, to give them hope knowing

they’re not alone and that they are cared. You’re never alone.

GREG BROWN