Halifax man battling cancer heads south seeking solution

Ian MacIntosh and Jen Mete love spending time together and long walks with their dogs are part of their regular routine.

A cancer diagnosis in 2021, however, has Ian worried that time is running short.

“Real disappointing, really, really disappointing,” MacIntosh says. “I was having a great time walking the dogs every day for an hour, hour-and-a-half every day. Enjoying my work and all that stuff, it’s been really hard knowing I’m not going to be around with Jen to grow old, with these guys to probably even see them finish out, it’s been really disappointing.”

MacIntosh thought he was in the clear after having his bladder removed, and he was for a year until his cancer showed up again on a follow-up CT scan.

On the advice of his doctor, MacIntosh will seek treatment in Annapolis, Maryland.

“The drug is just been released by the FDA in the states,” he says.

The two-drug combination doctors are using in the United States are individually approved in Canada, but putting them together in one treatment is not.

“This combination of drugs is a 50 per cent efficacy in terms of extending one’s life and preventing death, or at least giving the individual a decade, or whatever of additional life,” says Mete.

Trials are underway in Canada but the couple can't wait for the approval.

“So far it’s still going to be six months to a year before it’s approved,” MacIntosh says.

“Cancer doesn’t wait and unfortunately for us this is bad timing,” Mete says. “So we missed the trials, and the only way to access this combination of drugs is to do it in the U.S. and so we’re going to do everything we can to make it happen.”

Ian MacIntosh and Jen Mete sit with their dogs. (Source: Jonathan MacInnis/CTV News Atlantic)A GoFundMe campaign is about a third of the way to the $140,000 goal to help cover care and travel costs.

“Absolutely blown away by everybody helping out on the GoFundMe. It’s just been really heartwarming to see everybody,” says MacIntosh.

“Our goal is to just try to grow as old as we can together and make it happen,” Mete says.

MacIntosh has another round of chemo and a CT scan that will be shared with the medical team in Maryland. They will then decide if he is a good candidate for the treatment that has been so successful south of the border.

“Trying to stay alive a little longer,” he says

Because there are many more walks to enjoy.

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