$25 million donation gives hope to Kingston cancer patients – The Queen’s Journal

From furthering patient centered care to delivering lifesaving CAR T-cell therapy treatment, the $25 million donation from Cara and Murray Sinclair, Comm ’84, to the recently renamed Sinclair Cancer Research Institute (SCRI) is transforming lives touched by cancer.

One of the new treatments at SCRI, CAR T-cell therapy requires a patient’s immune cells to be manufactured in a laboratory so they can attack and kill cancerous cells. It takes weeks for T-cells to be sent away to the laboratory and altered, time cancer patients don’t have.

With the Sinclair’s donation, cancer patients in Kingston no longer have to endure the waiting game.

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Cathy Tidman thought her back pain was symptomatic of her years spent as a runner. Pounding the pavement regularly had finally caught up to Tidman, requiring her to undergo physiotherapy in the winter of 2018.

READ MORE: $25 million donation to Queen’s will fund world-class cancer research facilities

But as aches and pains continued to impact Tidman’s daily function, her physiotherapist suggested an X-ray of her pelvis. From the X-ray, doctors found some peculiar artifacts in Tidman’s lungs, leading to another X-ray and CT scan.

What started as typical back pain turned into a life changing diagnosis. In March 2018, Tidman was told she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer impacting the lymph system and the body’s ability to fight infections.

It was treatable, Tidman’s doctors told her. She underwent six rounds of chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant under the care of Dr. Annette Hay, hematologist and clinical scientist at Queen’s University, who Tidman described as a force.

“Even in the darkest days I never lost hope because of the extraordinary care I was given,” Tidman said in an interview with The Journal.

The treatment put Tidman into remission for six month, after which the cancer came back. Tidman described feeling devastated, which was compounded by the fact she had to travel to Cleveland, Ohio to receive CAR T-cell therapy–a treatment for patients with cancers irresponsive to other therapies.

“I remember lying in Kingston General Hospital thinking, ‘I don’t want to go to Cleveland. There’s no way I’m going to leave,’” Tidman said.

She was in tears driving across the border to America where she spent six weeks receiving CAR T-cell therapy with her husband, Dave Tidman by her side. Getting their passports together, arranging travel plans, organizing which family members would check in on their children—it was a massively stressful ordeal, Dave explained in an interview with The Journal.

Cancer patients don’t have the luxury of time, Dave said. They don’t have time to traverse borders to receive CAR T-cell therapy.

The $25 million dollar donation to SCRI will allow doctors and scientists to individually treat patients using CAR T-cell therapy, the treatment that saved Cathy’s life.

“With the donation, Cathy could have gone into a clinical trial in Kingston,” Dave said.

With the new imaging facility at SCRI, doctors will be able to study the real time effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapy in their patient’s bodies.

Reflecting on her own journey with cancer, Tidman is intimately aware of the impact the donation will have on cancer patients, their children, spouses, and caregivers. Doctors and researchers at SCRI—who saved Tidman’s life—can continue the lifesaving work they’ve already been doing.

“The researchers, the doctors, the radiologist—thank God there are people out there who know this stuff. Now there are going to be more [because of the donation],” Tidman said.

Since the summer of 2020 Tidman has been cancer free.

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There are moments in your life you’ll never forget, Rachel Koven explained in an interview The Journal. Weddings, university graduations, having children, the list goes on.

For Koven, it was the day her late husband, Kenneth Koven, was diagnosed with cancer.

“My kids were at school where they had fall break, and we’d gone out to the 1000 Islands to close the cottage. It was a beautiful sunny day. We thought it was going to be the best ever,” Koven said.

Kenneth fell and injured his shoulder, he went to the doctor to pick up a prescription for anti-inflammatory pills. When the pills didn’t have their intended effect, his physiotherapist suggested something was wrong with his liver. Kenneth went in for an ultrasound and shortly after received a call from his doctor telling him to come to their office immediately.

Koven had an inkling they were about to receive devastating news. Kenneth was diagnosed with terminal metastatic gastroesophageal cancer.

“There are few conversations in this world that are excruciating for both the oncologist and the family as a terminal cancer diagnosis because nobody ever wants to hear they have cancer,” Koven said.

Kenneth received care under Dr. Chris Booth, director of cancer care and the epidemiology division at SCRI, who the Koven’s developed a deep connection with. Not only did Booth provide Kenneth with life-extending cancer care, but he cared deeply about the wishes for the time he had left, Koven explained.

Before his passing in 2016, Kenneth made a speech about Booth’s impact on cancer patients’ lives and even raised a considerable amount of money for his research. He cherished the relationship he had with Booth, Koven said.

Koven kept in touch with Booth after her husband’s passing and, with her background in epidemiology, began helping him with his research. She eventually became an advisor for cancer patients’ families.

From her own experience caring for her husband, Koven understands the exhaustion that comes with scans, bloodwork, treatments, and surgeries.

Rather than looking at the number of days cancer patients have left in their lives, doctors must focus on the life lived within those days, something made easier with the Sinclair’s donation, Koven said. Researchers at SCRI will use the donation to study the patient experience so those with incurable cancer are given the best life possible with the time they have left.

“All patients and families that are facing incurable cancer have unique goals, needs, and preferences. The donation the Sinclair’s [have] given will allow [Booth] to delve into that and learn about people facing terminal cancer,” Koven said.

For Koven, her husband’s passion for patient centred care lives on in Booth and SCRI’s work.

Tags

cancer, Cancer Research, donation

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