An Okotoks family is inviting the community to help a young boy fight cancer. Tanner Swaby was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkins lymphoma in mid-October. To help the family pay for his medications and travel to and from the Alberta Children’s Hospital, his aunt, Kellie Boutot has organized A Fight for Tanner, an event at the Canadian Brewhouse on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. The 13-year-old takes anti-nausea medication and prednisone, in addition to anti-allergy medications and anti-anxiety medications due to complications that arose during his first round of chemotherapy, said Boutot. “What a lot of people don’t realize is Alberta Health Care does not cover cancer medication,” she said. “It will cover your chemo and your radiation but it does not cover the medication you need during treatment and after treatment.” Tanner takes the medication for 10 days at a time while he’s being administered chemotherapy, which is on a 10 days on, 10 days off schedule for at least 12 rounds, she said. It costs the family $2,000 for every 10 days of meds. In addition to medical expenses, the Swaby family is burdened with fuel costs to drive up to the Alberta Children’s Hospital every day, as well as $100 per week for parking fees. “We live 25 kilometres too close for Ronald McDonald House to help,” said Boutot. The family struggles further because Tanner’s dad has been unable to work since March after breaking his back, and was packaged out by his employer rather than being paid disability, she said. Bills can pile up at home, and the medication costs are difficult to manage, she said. “Unfortunately there are a lot of people who don’t understand that, because we live in a system where Alberta Health covers everything – but it doesn’t,” said Boutot. “It’s a huge expense. It’s going to be a minimum of $24,000 just for medication.” Though 12 rounds of chemotherapy his the best-case scenario to attack the growths found on Tanner’s lymph nodes through his chest cavity, it’s not going to be the end of the road, she said. The cancer is also in his spleen, and that will require radiation therapy as well. “They’re thinking he’ll have about another 12 more months of treatment,” said Boutot. It’s been a blow to the family, who didn’t suspect anything was wrong with their son, she said. The week before Thanksgiving, the family gathered in the Swaby home for a games night and Tanner was hanging out with his cousins. The next morning, he awoke with a softball-sized mass on the right side of his neck, she said. His mother took him to urgent care, where he was examined and taken by ambulance to the children’s hospital in Calgary. “They put him in quarantine and started testing him for infections – TB, malaria, all of those things that could potentially be airborne,” said Boutot. After two weeks, a biopsy was performed and an oncologist assured the family it was not cancer. Then they received a phone call from the head of the oncology team at the children’s hospital, who told them Tanner had Stage 4 Hodgkins lymphoma. Two lymph nodes were removed from the side of his neck, and the treatment began. It’s a long road because Hodgkins is a more difficult type of lymphoma to treat, said Boutot. “Non-Hodgkins gets caught in Stage 1 or 2 more often, but Hodgkins lymphoma stays a little bit more dormant longer, but grows,” said Boutot. “It’s more of an internal thing.” To make matters worse, there are very rarely side effects, she said. People usually feel tired, fatigued, and sweat a little more, rather than exhibiting symptoms like blood in urine, obvious lumps or swollen glands, changes in skin, or unexpected weight loss. In Tanner’s case, that was deceiving, she said. “He’s 13,” said Boutot. “We chalked it up to him going through puberty and kept handing him more deodorant. As for his being tired, he’s a 13-year-old boy, and what 13-year-old boy doesn’t want to sleep until noon on Saturday after playing video games until 1 a.m.? “It didn’t seem to be anything out of his normal.” Tanner began his second round of chemotherapy on Nov. 22, and his aunt said he’s in pretty good spirits so far – even with losing all of his hair already. “He’s trying to stay positive,” said Boutot. “At 13, you don’t ever think you’re going to have to face death.” The family hasn’t been given a prognosis that the cancer is terminal, and they cling to the hope that chemo and radiation will get Tanner back to himself in the next year. As a straight-A Grade 8 student at St. John Paul II Collegiate, Tanner misses socializing with friends and going to school. In fact, he’s continuing with schoolwork while going through treatment and got back to school as soon as doctors confirmed his white blood cell counts were safe for going out in public after his first round of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, for now he’s still stuck at home most of the time, said Boutot. “He feels like a bit of a caged animal right now,” she said. “He’d tell you it’s fine though, because my brother and sister-in-law are being a little more lenient on his gaming time.” Tickets to get into A Fight for Tanner cost $10 and can be purchased by calling Boutot at 587-896-5355.
