MLA Steve Ashton with residents who were instrumental in making the commitment possible.
It's been a long time coming but the province has announced they're making a $1.4 million investment towards the cancer chemo room at the Thompson General Hospital.
Thompson MLA Steve Ashton made the announcement yesterday, calling it a “community announcement” because of the role residents had in making the project possible:
"This was their day. It was their announcement, they made it happen and its gonna get built because of them. You know that’s what a community is all about, I’m always proud of Thompson, don’t think I’ve been more proud than seeing that kind of community effort here. They deserve all the recognition, this was a community effort 100% and good news: it’s gonna happen".
Just last month cancer patient Shelley Carey organized a rally to draw attention to the outdated room. She unfortunately passed away last week, but her husband Ron says she’d be very pleased to hear the announcement:
"Somewhat sad of course that Shelley wasn’t here to hear it too, and I was just saying to Steve, I was talking with him [and said] 'you know its great but I still have a certain amount of skepticism , until I see hammers and saws at work in that room, when I see that, I’ll know its really gonna become a reality'".
The new room will be bigger, will have more privacy, and will include an isolation room and an accessible washroom, all things that are lacking in the current room.
