YTC supports local cancer project

YORKTON — The Yorkton Tribal Council has donated $10,000 toward a Health Foundation project focused on local cancer care.

Ross Fisher, Executive Director with the Health Foundation said the donation will be used to help “expand cancer treatment programs we have at the hospital.”

The project currently under way will see cancer treatment moved from the third floor at the hospital to the first, which will create more room, allowing programming expansion which will increase capacity by some 50 per cent.

The project includes capacity for varied cancer treatments including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, infusion treatments and combination treatments.

After the expansion we will be the largest provider of cancer treatments after Regina and Saskatoon.

The infusion department will move as well, and the expansion will allow more treatments for Crones and colitis.

Tribal Chief Isabel O’Soup said supporting the project was another positive way to be supportive of the community, adding “a community is a whole, a collective.”

O’Soup said the cancer program based in Yorkton supports everyone in the city and region when such services are required, so the donation has far-reaching impact.

The overall price tag of the project is $425,000, said Fisher, adding they still need to raise $125,000 to fully fund the work.

It is hoped the move is completed by the end of June.