Cyndi Logan was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a decade ago. That specific kind of cancer is most common in older people but at 39-years-old when diagnosed, she was one of the less than two per cent of people under 40 diagnosed with it.
Multiple myeloma starts in the blood's plasma cells, a type of white blood cell which helps fight infections. Because those cells are found largely in bone marrow, multiple myeloma can weaken patients' bones.
"A lot of myeloma patients deal with a lot of pain because of fractures, or we call them lesions," Logan explained. "The reason why they figured out I had myeloma was I had three compression fractures in my spine with no reason. It's a painful disease."
Logan explained that there is no cure for Myeloma, but being that she is a young person with the disease, she can get treatments to reduce the symptoms using stem cell transplants. Since her diagnosis, Logan has gone to Vancouver twice for those transplants using her own stem cells. The treatment improved her symptoms for seven years, in some patients it can last as little as a few months.
Those stem cell transplants are difficult for the person being treated.
"You basically lay in a hospital bed for eight hours with two giant needles up your arm so that they can extract the stem cells, they have to go through this process where they get the stem cells actually to float to the top of your blood," she said.
That isn't the long part of the process. When Logan has received that treatment she then had to spend a month in Vancouver for the next part of the treatment.
"You get a very high dose of chemotherapy, which basically destroys all the cancer in your bone marrow," she explained. The stem cells that were extracted then get put back in. "It takes about two weeks for those baby stem cells to start making blood cells and white blood cells and red blood cells and all the things. So you're extreme immune compromised during that time. You have no ability in your body to fight infection."
And throughout that month in Vancouver, patients need a place to stay. While there are facilities that exist for that purpose through organizations like the Canadian Cancer Society, Logan said it isn't enough.
"A lot of patients are having to rent a condo or a hotel room. During COVID, they were so worried about the transplant patients getting a germ from somebody else, they weren't allowed to stay anywhere that was kind of communal like the cancer lodge. They had to rent a place where they could be safe from germs," Logan said.
Facing another relapse, she's looking at getting a different type of stem cell transplant, using one of her siblings' stem cells rather than her own, Logan is worried it will lead to a longer stay and therefor a bigger price tag.
"With my own cells with the stem cell transplant, I was a month in Vancouver with about a $10,000 price tag," she said. "You have to pay for the cancer lodge, you have to pay for some supportive medications, there's flights from Quesnel to Vancouver, you have to go back a couple of times for checkups so it's a big price tag. Now with a transplant using my brother or sister, it's a three-month stay in Vancouver."
The Canadian Cancer Society estimates cancer care costs the average patient over $30,000 throughout their lifetime.
Because the stem cell treatment is only available in Vancouver, when Logan leaves for a month she has to leave behind her family including her three children, which she says adds to the difficulty of the process.
Logan has been advocating to try to get governments and organizations to offer more support to patients in rural parts of the province where travel is required for treatment to have easier and more affordable access to treatment.
While programs like the Cancer Lodge and Hope Air do exist, Logan said there are barriers to accessing those. Hope Air is geared towards lower income patients, generally it is for those who have household incomes under $80,000. Logan stressed Hope Air, the Cancer Lodge and other services are absolutely vital, but she hopes to see them expanded so nobody has to pay for their cancer treatment.
"For people who are working and raising families, even if they have a combined household income that's close $100,000, they can't exactly afford a $10,000 price tag per month for treatment."
Logan has been working with other patients throughout her cancer journey, supporting them and advocating for them to receive more accessible care. That includes talking to governments, working with patients through their cancer journeys and participating in marches and fundraisers for research into multiple myeloma.
"When Coralee Oakes was our MLA, I spoke to her about this issue, about having to travel to Vancouver and she did actually go to the legislature and talk about it, that northern residents need more support," she said. "I think it might have helped with our previous premier, who has now passed away sadly from cancer but he also I think was part of the push to get more lodges."
She has led support groups in the past as well, connecting with people who have the same diagnosis as her. She's found many people prefer to learn more about the disease from another person who shares the experience rather than researching it online. Her doctor didn't know about multiple myeloma and she wanted to connected with someone who had experience. Eventually, she was connected with Myeloma Canada and speaking to someone who shared her diagnosis was extremely helpful for her.
"I was desperate to have someone to talk to, who had been there," she said. "People want to talk to someone who's been through it, who's been there, who's done a transplant. So a lot of my advocacy I'm finding is just phone calls with patients,"
The support group grew to around 15 people who talked to one another and went to events like myeloma marches together, building camaraderie and finding a sense of comfort being able to connect with people who are going through something similar.
"I think I just want to be that support that I didn't have in the beginning."
With a large price tag looming for her next round of treatment, Logan doesn't know how she'll pay for it if the cost is as high as she expects. She said she may have to set up a fundraiser and hope her friends and family can help her get to Vancouver so she can have the next round of treatment.
"Multiple myeloma patients in northern B.C. have to spend a lot of money out of pocket to go to a life-saving treatment," Logan said. "A lot of cancers we have, people can go to treatment and they don't have to do it again. Whereas with myeloma patients, there is no cure but there are treatments."
