The Canadian Cancer Society is requesting regional districts contribute a dollar to the Northern Lodge for every resident in the Northern Health region - excluding Prince George.
Northern Lodge campaign manager Les Waldie presented the request to the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George on Thursday. Waldie said the City of Prince George already donated the Alward Park location, worth approximately $500,000, to construct the lodge.
"I want to emphasize... the importance of this for all of us in the region," Waldie said. "The lodge will provide services to all cancer patients, not just those staying in the lodge. It really does enhance positive patient outcomes."
Northern Lodge would provide a "home away from home" for patients from outside Prince George being treated at the B.C. Cancer Agency Centre For the North, currently under construction. The $10 million lodge will provide nurse-supervised accommodation for up to 36 cancer patients and family members.
"[But] this lodge is not a health-care facility, it's a lodge," he said. "People who need more intensive care will be in the hospital."
Waldie said the Canadian Cancer Society has raised approximately $7.5 million for the lodge to date. If the seven regional districts served by Northern Health contribute one dollar per person, excluding the roughly 80,000 residents in Prince George, the total would be approximately $220,000.
"We've been working on the quiet phase of the campaign for about a year now," Waldie said. "We have no federal or provincial government commitment at this point, but we're working on that."
Patients and family members will be able at stay at the lodge for $42 to $55 per day, Waldie said.
"No one is turned away because of their inability to pay," he added. "That is all inclusive - three meals a day, 24 hour snacking and the full run of the place."
Services at the lodge will include counselling, wig bank and hair salon, prosthetics services, library, exercise room, meditation/spiritual room, laundry, lounge and conference rooms.
The lodge is based on similar lodges operated by the Canadian Cancer Society in Vancouver, Kelowna and Victoria.
Fraser-Fort George district director and city councillor Dave Wilbur said he can attest to the importance of the lodges for all cancer patients.
"When my wife was diagnosed we had to travel to Vancouver. We didn't stay at the lodge, we stayed with family, but we met cancer fellow-travellers who did," Wilbur said. "In the lodge setting you have the opportunity to deal with others on the same journey. I'm a huge fan for having this in the North. I think the whole North is better for it."
The board referred the request to district staff to review and bring a recommendation back to the board.
Construction of the lodge is scheduled to begin in June. The lodge is slated to open at the same time as the cancer centre in late 2012.
