02/16/2023
On Sunday, February 12 my wife Yu Wang Li ( many people know her as Joyce, owner of Gourmet Dumplings restaurant) and I travelled from Toronto home to Amherst. Not remarkable except for the fact that Wang Li had been in Toronto participating in a trial treatment program for metastatic colon cancer and was diagnosed as No Evidence of Disease in late January.
In May 2021, Wang Li’s prognosis had been one to two years, with aggressive chemotherapy treatments.
As a family, we were not accepting of that early prognosis and researched treatment options as best we could, Cuba, China, Japan, USA, Europe, Canada; there were/are approximately four hundred trial treatment programs out there for colon cancer, it has the third highest mortality rate for all cancer patients in Canada. Colon cancer also has a very high successful treatment rate if diagnosed at an early stage. My wife was diagnosed at Stage 4.
Near the completion of Wang Li’s second series of chemotherapy we read an article on CBC web news involving a cancer treatment advocacy group named Colore**al Cancer Research and Action Network (CCRAN) based in Toronto. We needed help as it was very difficult to deal with all the variables for most effective cancer treatment. We contacted CCRAN and the Director took on the role of advocate for Wang Li, her champion, CCRAN joined with our oncologist in Halifax, supported our efforts in researching the best treatment program available and eventually identified the trial program at University Hospital Network in Toronto where Wang Li underwent in vivo, isolated lung perfusion surgeries to remove numerous tumors from both lungs. All very intense stuff and CCRAN people were with us all the way, and still are.
This post is written to both inspire readers as to the potential for modern medicine to successfully treat some of these ‘untreatable’ cancers and also to promote the special place CCRAN has as an advocate for cancer patients in Canada. CCRAN is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promote early detection and treatment of colon and re**al cancers and their main source of funding is an annual ’BumRun’ which takes place in centers across Canada. This year the ‘BumRun’ is both virtual and realtime. So individuals and teams can participate from anywhere.
Please share this post and reshare and pass on the information as much as possible. You can sign up to participate in BumRun at:
bunrun website
