A Nova Scotia man is crediting the funds raised by last year’s Ride For Cancer with helping to save his life.
Tristan Dyer spent the past 14 months battling stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma.
“She looked at my blood work and said ‘congratulations, you have the good kind of cancer,’” says Tristan. “To be clear, there is no good cancer.”
Tristan received chemotherapy every two weeks, but it didn't kill all of his cancer cells.
The next step in treatment was a stem cell transplant.
“This is a cell separator, this is the newest technology in North America,” says Charlene Galloway, nurse. “This separates the whole blood in order to isolate that stem cell layer.”
The cell separator is called an apheresis machine. The $170,000 raised with the 2015 Ride For Cancer helped buy one.
“Last year’s fundraising saved my life this year,” says Tristan.
The addition of a fourth apheresis machine in Halifax cut wait times, which allows three new patients to receive a transplant each week.
“I could definitely feel the need and now I can feel the benefit,” says Tristan.
Having the technology he needed to live close by meant Tristan could stay at home during treatment and be with his wife.
“It made things so much easier,” says Trudy Dyer, Tristan’s wife. “I can’t imagine what we would have had to do if we had to travel for hours on top of that in order to come for his treatments.”
To give back to the cause that helped save her husband, Trudy is partaking in this year’s Ride For Cancer.
“Nervous is an understatement,” says Trudy. “I am incredibly nervous about the ride, but my motto all along has been if Tristan and patients like Tristan can go through cancer and beat cancer and come out the other side, then I can get my butt on a bike and train to ride 100 kilometres.”
This year, donations will go towards local cancer treatment, research, patient care and equipment like the kind that helped Tristan.
