cs

DUSTIN
QUEZADA |

Around Town

TERRACE ROMP Constable Jason Hydamac-
kais taking part in the Cops for Cancer bicycle

_ trek covering 724 kilometres.

‘CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Locals to ride in cops

for cancer trek

COPS FOR CANCER cycles through town to raise
money for cancer education and prevention Sept.
14.

Organizer Terrace RCMP Cst. Jason Hydamac-

_ ka said the crew is expected to ride into town in the

mid-afternoon depending on the weather. .
“I think we’ re only riding 120 km that day so we

- should be in even in the early afternoon,” he said.

A tent will be set up in the Safeway parking lot.
near the gas bar to welcome them. :

The group plans to cycle across the old Skeena
-bridge and down Lakelse Avenue to enter the city.

-Hydamacka and Cst. Stacey Primosch from the *
Terrace RCMP detachment will join riders from

» detachments across northwestern B:C. in the 724-
km trek that commences Sept. 8 in Prince George
_and winds up Sept..17 in Prince Rupert.

“I think the shortest day we go is about 100 km
and the longest is from Terrace to Rupert,”. Hy-
damacka said, adding the group will take a detour
to Fort St. James.

Hydamacka, in Terrace since last November,

- chose to ride for personal reasons.
“Tve:-had.quite.a few. relatives that had cancer, |.

in particular my aunt Eileen Hydamacka,” he said.

“She had a very long struggle with breast can-
cer. She fought it for over a decade until it finally
caught up with her.”

He also felt the ride would be a chance to get to
know more people and fellow officers.

He hopes the weather co-operates, giving cy-
clists the wind on their backs and the sun on their
faces, rather than last year’s rain-soaked ride, but
said the weather won’t dampen the event.

“Rain or shine, we’re going,” he said.

Date change extends
fundraising opportunity

‘THE DATE for Tara Davis’ kidney transplant has
been pushed back to Sept. 21. :
The plight of the 10-year-old, originally from

_ Greenville, was told in the Aug. 17 issue of the ©

. Standard.
In it, her grandmother Marlene Robinson de-
tailed her wish to be by her granddaughter’s side

_ along with her other three grandparents and Tara’s
_ great-grandmother. .

With the delay in the transplant, Robinson’s
drive to raise the money necessary to have the five
family members and one aide be in Vancouver has
been extended.

A bottle drive continues at Robinson’s home and .
she will be holding a loonie auction before leaving
for Vancouver.

Robinson has raised enough for the group’s air-
fare, but is still lacking money for accommodation
_and meals. Without a vehicle,.Robinson says she’s.

also seeking any volunteers with transport and la-
bourers to help with the bottle collection. Robinson °

can be reached at 638-8696 and any bottles with a

deposit return can be dropped off at her house at —

4604 Graham Avenue.

- Davis grew up in Greenville, but her family was
forced to move closer to the Lower Mainland — Na-
naimo — when it was discovered six years ago that
she had nephritic syndrome

A transplant was deemed necessary this summer
and on Sept. 21 she will receive her father’s kidney

‘at Vancouver Children’s Hospital.

TLT gears up for fall

_ ‘TERRACE LITTLE Theatre will finalize details of

its 2005-06 season, and make cost-saving season -
ticket packages available by mid-September.

Two productions are planned for the fall: Jeff
Goode’s “The Eight: Reindeer Monologues” di-
rected by Annette Martindale. The play is a social
satire with adult themes, not suitable for children.

Dan Goggin’s musical-comedy hit ‘‘Nunsense”
directed by Marianne Brorup-Weston with musical :
director Tim Keenan and assistant musical director
Robin Hollett

Needed for our November production of Nun-

_ sense at the REM Lee: two basketball hoops (as

mounted in a school gym), four counter stools (like
from an old lunch counter in a diner), three hair
dryers (the kind that come down over the head),
one juke box, one exercycle, one car seat (back seat
of a real car), a Marilyn Monroe in swimsuit poster,
James Dean, Sandra Dee or Elvis posters, a set of
gym lockers and a wall or pay phone.

. By DUSTIN QUEZADA
THOUGH HER ‘° circumstances
would :have tripped up most, Nan
Harrison is a fighter.

The 7l- ~year-old longtime Ter-

race resident is back, but her Teturn

from the Lower Mainland wasn't
planned.
In April, the day. Harrison v was re-

leased from a Port Moody hospital.
after recovering from a broken back,

she lost her.husband.

Charles (Doc) Harrison had un-
dergone successful open heart sur-
gery only to suffer a pulmonary em-

. bolus, described as a blockage of an
‘artery in the lungs by fat, air, tumor

tissue or blood clot.
“I was stunned. The doctors said
there was no risk but there’s always

‘a risk,” said Harrison, adding doc-
‘tors were adamant, the operation

went fine.
¢ Harrison not only Jost her hus-

band but her caretaker as well. You”

see, she has Parkinson’s Disease
and the lack of balance it brings had
landed her in the hospital with the

. broken back.

“I couldn’t stay home ‘(alone)
overnight,” said Harrison of her Port
Coquitlam home. “It was just too
big.” °

With a need for 24. hour super- -
‘vision, she made the ‘decision that

she had to go into care and is now
a resident of the Terraceview Lodge
on the:bench.

Harrison was first diagnosed with
the brain disorder that affects those

_ afflicted with symptoms such as rest.
‘tremor ‘of limb, slowness of move-.
ment, rigidity, and poor balance in’

1984 when she was 50.

When the diagnosis was made.
and later confirmed by a specialist, ©

‘she was working on the National
Parole Board, where she helped to
revoke the mandatory supervision of

_ jailed serial killer Clifford Olson.

“T told the doctor, ‘I don’t want it,
send it back,’” said the spirited Har-
rison of the diagnosis.

She continued her work for the

board as her condition worsened.

Then her son was involved in a
near fatal accident in April 1988 that
left him without the use of both his
arms.

Consumed with the state of her
son, Harrison said she all but ignored
her own failing health.

s )6§$TERRACE STANDARD

“I Pushed my own symptoms
aside,” said Harrison, who was then
experiencing stuttering steps when
she walked and freezing of her move-

ments. “I had full- blown Parkinson’ s

Disease.”

She Was unable to take another
appointment with the board in 1990
due to her advanced symptoms and
she and her husband settled into re-
tirement.

Her son returned to Terrace to
become an organic farmer, despite’

only having 14 and 20 per cent usage
of his two hands respectively.
“Once (son) Brad was established
in Terrace, I didn’t worry as much,”
Harrison said.
* While her younger son, Brent, re-
mains in the Vancouver area, Brad’s

presence made Harrison’s decision

to return to Terrace’easier.

’ “Brad has given me two grand-
children and he. has a very special
wife of 12 years,” added Harrison.

While Harrison said she misses. |
friends and shopping in the Lower ~
Mainland, she said she is enjoying

re-connecting with friends here.

Confined to a walker, she goes. ©.
downtown in a handyDART, with ©
friends or in her own vehicle driven

by someone else.

She continues to recover from
the January fall that left her unable
to walk.

She endured a five and a half hour

surgery, was outfitted in a full-body

brace and went on to undergo labori-
ous physiotherapy,

Harrison. controls her symptoms
with three different medications and —

inexplicably since her back surgery,
her dyskinesia, the abnormal, invol-
untary body movements that can ap-
pear as jerking, fidgeting, twisting,
and turning movements has less-
ened,

But her mental capacities remain
intact, as does her feistiness.

“T’m pretty sharp on the bit,”
Harrison said. “The nurses give me a
hard time, they call me ‘smart ass.

For Harrison, an unforseen bene-
fit of returning to Terrace, where she
worked as general duty nurse, an op-
tician, a police matron and a school
board official for over 20 years, is
she won’t have to travel here to take
part in this weekend’s Parkinson’s
fundraiser,

_ She had driven up the lat three

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - B1

'

397

" whelmed that people: with -Parkin-

638-7283

prsgsssete

yeep EE ESSELTES

Sharp senior walks on

NAN Harrison says the staff at Terraceview Lodge are wonderful and .
that she'll happily stay there until she passes on. A diehard, BC Li- .

ons fan, she says her roommate isn’t too happy when'she insists on

watching the football games on TV

DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO ©

years with her husband to take part _
in the local SuperWalk for Parkin- —
son’s, the national event taking place .
_ in.75 Canadian communities.

Last year, Harrison raised $2,000
but with her limited mobility this

-year, she said gathering pledges has

been more difficult.

Lori Francisco, associate director
of the Parkinson, Society of British
Columbia, said Harrison has raised

.several thousand dollars by herself

in the last four years. .
“There are times when I’m over-

son’s that are affected by the disease
manage themselves to. raise several
thousand dollars,” Francisco said.

“Nan is warm, kind and spirited
‘and I admire her for courage.”

“T just want people to stop, think

and come for a nice walk,” Harrison

said.
“T just hope everyone takes (the
disease) seriously. -you never know

' who'll get it next.”

The Terrace SuperWalk for Par-
kinson’s goes Sunday, Sept. 11. For
details, see the Community Calendar

Page B3.

CALEB and Aaron Brousseau, and Tamara.and Roger Ewald (L to. R) stand by one of hundrads of three to: 10-foot-tall stone t urns, some

weighing as much as seven tonnes, that lie scattered across a grassy plain in the Xieng Khouang province. The stones are not native to the
area and local inhabitants say they were made to celebrate a great military victory 1,500 years ago.

» CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Samaritans put water first

By DUSTIN QUEZADA
YOU’RE FLIPPING the channels watching
latenight TV and a gut-wrenching commercial
tells you for 10 cents a day you could feed a child

‘in a Third World country.

Chances are, four locals would know exactly
how valuable western contributions can be after

_ their 10-day summer work experience in Laos.

Roger and Tamara Ewald accompanied broth-
ers Aaron and Caleb Brousseau to Laos with non-
governmental organization Samaritans First in a
project to outfit families with water filters.

“Twenty million people die from water world-
wide, while three million die from malaria,” said
Tamara Ewald, explaining the dire need for clean
water in the Southeast Asian country.

Laos is the least developed Asian landlocked

country, and i is surrounded by China in the north,
Burma to the northwest, Thailand in the south-
west, Cambodia in the southeast and Vietnam. to
the east.

“We impose on them what we think they

should want because of our materialistic
culture.”

The four-person Terrace team joined a group

of 21 Albertans for their volunteer trip to the

Xieng Khouang province.
There, they helped with infrastructure projects
and the building and installation of the filters.
The first time overseas for the Brousseau
brothers, they found themselves trying to prove

~ their work ethic. ; ;
“It’s amazing how hard the ladies work, their

work ethic,” said Caleb, 17, of the Laotian women.
“It was a shock to see how lazy the guys were.’
The younger brother by a year, Caleb helped
in the work that produced two kilometres worth
of road.
Shovels, rocks and wheelbarrows were the or-

‘der of the eight-hour work days. ;
Aaron, 18, was part of.a crew that painted four

buildings.

But the thrust of the mission was to get water

to the people.

‘Most Laotians are subsistence farmers and
though rice is the principal crop, the Samaritans
First team was.helping on a silkworm farm.

Continued Page B3

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