MEDICINE HAT, AB. – Tanya Ellis received a terminal cancer diagnosis from a Canadian doctor but she was not willing to give up hope at finding another another option.
Ellis travelled to Houston, Texas this fall hoping for a second opinion for the cancerous tumours growing on the dome of her liver.
“I was completely shocked when they said that surgery could be an option for me, they should be able to removed all the cancer, that wasn’t even an option in Canada.”
Ellis will be travelling to Houston after the holidays and receive a Transthoracic surgery. She explained it means the surgeon will enter through the back of her ribs to reach her tumours. The surgeon who has agreed to do the procedure, is only one of two trained in the technique in the world, Ellis explained.
“I don’t know if all the prayers that were said for me that got me the right one,” she said. “He’s willing to do it and sounds quite confident, I am totally prepared to take that risk.”
In Canada, doctors offered her chemotherapy as a treatment and not much else.
“When you have cancer in Canada, it’s like you’re treated palliative,” she explained. “They’re just keeping you comfortable, they’re not really trying to cure you.”
Ellis said thanks to generous donations from the community, they were able to raise the $167,000 USD to pay for the procedure.
