BARRHEAD - It is an annual tradition.
Every winter, the Westlock Country Jamboree donates the proceeds they collect from the 50/50 draws at the music jamsto area charities.
For about the last decade, except for one year due to COVID-19, the Barrhead Community Cancer Centre is always included in the list of recipients.
On Thursday, Jan. 26, the not-for-profit organization, donated $500 to the centre.
"That is because the (Barrhead Community Centre) and the work they do impacts so many people," said Gloria Kirchner.
Kirchner is the MC for the Westlock Jamboree and knows about the work the centre does personally, as they treated her husband Julius in his battle with cancer.
Unfortunately, Julius succumbed to his second bout of cancer in 2011.
In the 1980s, Julius (also known as Josh) was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
"He had his surgery here at the Barrhead hospital," Kirchner said.
In 1999, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and although Juilius did go to the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton for some of his treatments, Kirchner said the majority of his treatments were at the centre.
"It is such a nice place now and so spacious," she said. "The old centre only had room for a couple of chairs and a bed, and even then, it was cramped. (The nurses and other staff) didn't really even have enough space for a desk. It was shoehorned in right next to a cupboard."
In the summer of 2016, after more than a year of construction, a newly renovated and expanded centre opened its doors, sporting about four times the original space.
Cancer centre nurse navigator Linda Knapp said the centre has a large catchment area serving patients from the other side of Swan Hills to Slave Lake to the north and almost to Bonnyville to the east.
"A lot of people who don't want to drive to the (Cross Cancer Institute) also opt to come to Barrhead from the south," she said.
Knapp did not want to hazard a guess of how many patients the centre sees or how many more people they are now able to serve since the expansion but said in recent years, they have seen an increase in patients.
"I think that is because there is more cancer out there," she said. "Plus, the (Cross Cancer Institute) has done a great job of letting people know about the Closer to Home program and allowing people to undergo chemotherapy in their home communities."
However, Knapp said, it isn't necessarily about the number of patients, or the quality or type of care the centre provides, which has always been excellent, but the experience.
"We have always been able to accommodate our patient population. We always made do with what we had," she said. "It is just a better working space and environment for treatment. It gives us more room. It allows patients to bring family members."
The centre is one of 11 such centres across the province. It opened its doors in 1996 with 544 square feet of space. After the estimated $1.5 million expansion, the available floor space ballooned to 2,040 square feet.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
