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Longtime Shuswap paramedic battles rare, aggressive cancer

Friends establish GoFundMe account to help with living expenses while single mom is in treatment
13804470_web1_181010-SAA-Shannon-Thernes
Shannon Thernes

Salmon Arm paramedic Shannon Thernes is used to caring for others.

But the 43-year-old single mother is now in need of a great deal of care and financial support.

On Sept. 13, her birthday, Thernes was diagnosed with sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that had intruded into her brain.

Following a 10-hour surgery on Sept. 28, the single mother of two faces radiation and chemotherapy and will be unable to work.

Her partner, Wes Smith, says a GoFundMe page has been set up to raise funds for Thernes as she undergoes treatment and recovery.

He says Thernes has been “in pain and going through (medical) hoops since May.”

“It (cancer) had been growing for some time,” Smith says. “It only started displaying cold and flu symptoms in December 2017 and was treated as a sinus cold.”

After several rounds of antibiotics, Thernes was referred to a doctor whom Smith describes as one of the province’s best ear, nose and throat specialists.

Related: BC teen reunited with paramedics who saved her life 17 years ago

Her 10-hour operation, which included brain surgery, took place five days after her surgical consult, following which she spent two days in intensive care.

“Right now it’s chasing pain; she still has a lumbar drain in to keep the balance of the spinal fluid,” Smith said last Monday. “There are two sources of pain; along with crazy migraine pain, they had to take a fascia graft from her left leg for the brain.”

Smith says Thernes was moved to a neurological ward at Vancouver General on Sept. 30 and the hope was she would be able to come home for Thanksgiving.

Following five weeks of recovery, Thernes will begin an intense round of chemo and radiation, during which she will be unable to work.

The mother of two daughters, one 17 and the other 15, Thernes has been a paramedic in B.C. for 19 years.

She began her career in Clinton and has worked in Salmon Arm for about 10 years.

“She’s a remarkable woman, staying strong through the pain,” says Smith, noting Thernes was ready to go to work full time now that her girls are older. As she had not yet done so, she gets fewer benefits and less long-term disability.

Related: Okanagan paramedics in focus for PTSD

Longtime friend Darlene McGuire says Thernes has been back to work for just over 18 months, following a severe bout of PTSD, the result of a critical incident that occurred while she was on a call.

“Any emergency personnel being able to go back to work after a PTSD incident is not really common, so while she did go back to work, she was unable to work full time because of the PTSD,” says McGuire. “She loves being a paramedic. Her first love is her girls and the second is putting on that uniform. She is amazing at her job.”

Thernes will be off work for a minimum of six months, following which she will have to go to Vancouver every three months for the next two years.

“This cancer is so rare, it often regenerates in the same area,” says Smith, a nurse who works in Vernon. “She will have to have frequent endoscopies to check for cancer growth; it’s a lot of battles in a big war.”

Smith is hoping Thernes will be able to get radiation treatments in Kelowna and chemo closer to home.

A GoFundMe account has been set up for Thernes at https://www.gofundme.com/let039s-rock-for-shannon, for anyone who wished to help Shannon financially.

Money raised will go towards living expenses for the duration of her treatment and recovery.


@SalmonArm
barb.brouwer@saobserver.net

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