Eyes toward Tomorrow

Cancer study hits close to home for Red Deer couple

Story by Courtney Allen

Pat and Dorothea Klein joined the Tomorrow Project 10 years ago when, as cancer-free Albertans, the Red Deer couple were eligible candidates for Alberta Health Services' long-term study into the causes of the disease.

They joined because they had watched many friends and family members battle cancer

 Then the disease hit even closer to home.

Dorothea, 64, was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago and, aside from a period of remission, she has been fighting the disease ever since, with husband Pat by her side.

"We are battling this together," says Pat, 65.

"We see this from both sides: she is a patient and I am a caregiver. If the information we give can change someone's life in the future, make it so someone does not ever have to hear they have cancer, then we have do it. We all have to do it."

The Tomorrow Project is a long-term research initiative of AHS Cancer Care. By 2012, researchers want to enroll 50,000 Albertans ages 35 to 69 who have never had cancer. By carefully reviewing genetic and lifestyle factors over a 50-year period, researchers hope to gain a better understanding of what causes a disease that is expected to kill one in four Albertans.

Permanent study centres have been established in Edmonton and Calgary, while a temporary study centre will open at Red Deer Festival Hall, 4214 58 Street, from June 20 to 23 for central Albertans who wish to join the study.

They will be asked questions about their health and lifestyle, have some simple physical measurements taken and give small amounts of urine and blood, or saliva. Appointments are necessary and will take about one hour.

Data compiled by researchers is intended to provide more information on how to prevent cancer from occurring – a goal that resonates with the Kleins.

"We need healthy and even unhealthy people to partake in the study so we can conquer this," says Pat, whose wife has resumed her chemotherapy treatments.

"The facts and the statistics that come from them are what will make this project work. If the information we give can stop this from happening to someone else, then everyone who can give needs to. Nothing can happen, nothing can be done, if we don't give the information needed."

Figures show almost half of all Albertans will develop cancer in their lifetime. In the Central Zone of AHS, which includes Red Deer, 1,965 people developed cancer in 2009 (the latest available statistics) and 846 died from the disease.

The establishment of a temporary study centre in Red Deer marks the third time the study has visited areas outside Calgary and Edmonton, following a visit to Lethbridge this past November and Drayton Valley in March.

Red Deer has already supported The Tomorrow Project, with more than 1,200 local residents having participated in an earlier phase of the study.

For information and to join the study, visit www.in4tomorrow.ca and complete the online form or call toll-free 1-877-919-9292.