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Ben’s Big Legacy
CANADA DOESN’T HAVE CANCER-FIGHTING PROTON THERAPY YET — BUT THAT MIGHT CHANGE THANKS TO THE BEN STELTER FOUNDATION
BySTEVENSANDOR PhotosAARONPEDERSEN
magine being a parent to a critically ill child. There’s a therapy out there that could improve the child’s condition, but it’s not available to you.
Sadly, it’s something that befell Ben Stelter
and his family.
Ben is well known to Edmontonians. Before
passing away from brain cancer at the age of six, his friendship with many of the Edmonton Oilers became the stuff of legend. He was a fixture at games. He would not allow cancer to interfere with his passion for the team that he loved with all his heart.
But, Ben’s mom and dad, Lea and Mike, knew there was new cancer-fighting technology out there — proton therapy — that could have helped their son.
“It would have benefitted Ben, but it wasn’t available to him at the time,” says Mike. “Canada is currently the only G8 country that doesn’t have proton therapy available, which was shocking for us to figure out.”
The Ben Stelter Foundation, aimed to help kids with cancer, was founded in his memory. And, one of the key initiatives is to raise the funds needed to bring proton therapy to Edmonton.
It’s a project that will cost just under
$150 million. The Ben Stelter Foundation
has partnered with Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF) to establish an endowment
fund to support the project and help with the fundraising efforts.
It’s a fitting legacy for Ben, who, despite having to fight a terrible fight at such a tender age, often put others ahead of himself.
“Ben had such a big heart,” recalls Mike. “He was always more concerned about other people in the hospital, other kids, and wanting to make sure they were being taken care of. He wanted to do things like take his own money to buy things for the treasure chest at the hospital, so when a child was getting a needle or doing hard that day, they got to go to the treasure box. He wanted to make sure there was something cool for them there.”
A cruel twist
Mike was meeting with partners, WestCan Proton Therapy and Edmonton Global, in 2023, to discuss the best ways to raise the funds needed to bring the cancer-fighting technology here. And, then fate intervened in the cruelest of ways.
In April of 2023, Mike was diagnosed with cancer. He had a tumour pushing against his spine. The best course of treatment? Proton therapy. He was sent to the United States.
“I got to see firsthand why it’s so important for us to have it here.”
Lea couldn’t be with him the whole time, so Mike had to spend some of the time in the U.S. without family nearby. There was the paperwork
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