st

JENNIFER LANG

Around Town Walk for health

PEOPLE [INTERESTED in battling Parkinson's have their opportunity this Saturday by col- lecting pledges and then taking part in a “SuperWalk' along the Millennium Pathway.

The walk here.is one of 70 planned across the country by the Parkinson Society. ©

Parkinson’s is a progressive, debilitating neurological disorder affecting 100,000 Cana- dians, There is no cure. Over time, Parkinson’s imposes enormous human and financial de- mands on families.

Parkinson Society British Columbia was es- tablished 34 years ago, and exists to address the personal and social consequences of this disorder through education, outreach, scientific esearch and public awareness.

Last year, the 2002 SuperWalk increased the number of walk sites to 65 sites, resulting in revenues of $1,262,429,

In British Columbia, 1{ communities will host a SuperWalk.

Lesley Erasmus is the lead for the walk in Terrace, 638-7800. Registration begins at | p.m. with the walk beginning at 1:30 p.m.

i

CO-WORKERS Theo Grant, left, June Ro- dick, centre and Laura Tkachanko of Safeway cradle armloads of items dona- ted to a garage sale organized to help a local family. .

‘Every little bit helps’

THE GRANDMOTHER of 2-year-old Macken- zie Agnew says the family is in awe over the amount of community support they’ve received in recent weeks.

Judy Robinson says an Aug. 30 garage sale organized by colleagues at Safeway raised $4,500. “It was huge,” she says.

So many items were donated that the gar- age sale filled the side parking lot at Safeway.

Ninety-five per cent of the items sold.

Robinson’s daughter Lynda Agnew, Mack- enzie’s mother, was beside herself with joy at learning how Terrace residents have respon- ded.

“We can’t thank the town enough,” she says. “It eases their minds a lot.”

The one-year-old girl was diagnosed with bone cancer, She will require extensive treat- ment at Vancouver Children’s Hospital for up to 17 weeks. .

Friends and family banded together to help the family cope with expenses related to travel and treatment.

Staff at Zellers, where Mackenzie’s father Don works, are also organizing fundraising ef- forts.

They held a bake sale, have put out a col- lection jar, and will hold an upcoming garage sale,

A trust fund for Mackenzie has also been established at CIBC.

“Every little bit helps and we do appreciate it.”

Mackenzie has already received her first round of chemotherapy treatment and is about to undergo more.

“She’s doing pretty good,” got along road ahead of her.”

East Coast singer performs Friday night

NOVA SCOTIAN Vince Morash brings the salt-tinged sound of traditional and contempor- ary Maritime music to Cafenera Friday even- ing for the Terrace and District Arts Council's first coffeehouse performance of the season.

Morash; who shares’ the bill with Terrace’s Paul “Ammo” Sametz, is a recording artist who hails from the East Coast (Peggy's Cove, to be exact).

He writes and performs his own songs, drawing on his varied working experiences in fishing communities on bath sides of the coun-

she says. “She's

Before becoming a hardware salesman, he . worked as a heavy equipment operator and mechanic. He’s also worked in a pit mine and is a former sports editor of a small newspaper. His 1997 CD Tide to Tradition features 12 songs. The Sept. [2 coffee house performance | takes place between 7-9 p.m.

TERRACE STANDARD

A gizmo to gloat about

An insulin pump transforms. the life of a local diabetic man

By JENNIFER LANG SKIPPING A MEAL may not sound like something to get excited about, un- less your name is Keith Norman.

The former city of Ter- race treasurer and kidney transplant recipient is also a type | diabetic.

On July 23, something remarkable happened.

He was fitted with a programmable insulin pump that delivers as much or as little insulin he needs every hour.

The pump, connected to

an IV tube that fits into an-

opening under his skin, al- lows him to regulate each dose well ahead of time, tailoring it to what he eats, when he eats and how ac- tive he is.

Some might see it as being tethered to a gadget for the rest of his life.

But he doesn't see it that way at ail.

“For me, it’s been a significant change in my life style,” he says. “For the first time in 31 years, I can skip a meal. The free- dom of it.”

The pump runs on triple A batteries, and it’s water- proof, so he can take it in the shower if necessary, although he can also dis- connect it for short amounts of time.

It's also small and fairly Hight weight; it just slips

onto his belt,

“It’s no different than

people carrying a’ cell phone or a pager — it’s about the same size. Most people don’t even notice it.”

He “sleeps better - at night, too, So does his wife Sandra.

For three decades, the father of two has injected himself with insulin, once in the morning and a sec- ond time at night. ,

“l'd have to think, OK, how much sugar am [ going to be using today?”

It's a task that requires

‘the precision of a bia-

chemist. | If his blood sugar slips too far below. the. target

-zone, his body will go into

hypoglycemic shock. While it’s cause for concern during the day time — friends and collea- gues are alert to the tell- tale signs of impending trouble — it’s another story at night when he’s asleep. A couple of times he’s awoke to find anibulance

attendants working on him. .

Being diabetic has meant never being more

_ than 15 minutes away from

food.

An avid golfer, Norman would have to make sure he had eaten his lunch by 9: 30 a.m. if he. was head- ing to the greens for the day.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - Bl

A LIFE SAVER: Keith Norman and his new insulin pump, about the size of a pager. it's already significantly improved his life.

JENNIFER LANG PHOTO

While some diabetics are sufficiently able to contral their blood sugar levels, Norman has strug: gled with it.

Diabetics must try te

keep their blood-sugar le-

avoid complications ~ like heart disease, blindness, amputations and kidney failure.

He’s looking forward to an upcoming blood test that will determine his average ‘blood sugar level over the past 60 to 90 days, a better indicator of

vels on target in order to:

how well the new pump is working.

Norman said a blood sugar of 5.6 is normal for most people. His has actu- ally dropped by 4.5 since

“he gdét the pump on-July 23. _-

“It shows you where | was,” he says, his eyes widening with surprise, “I was almost double.”

It's welcome news for Norman, who's had a rocky road these past few years,

Norman's own kidneys had failed to the point

- grounds

where he needed a trans- plant. Fortunately, his bro- ther Peter was a match.

A complication during the kidney transplant meant he almost died until doctors performed: a sec- ond operation. Then his body started to reject the new kidney.

Last year, he needed cataract surgery on his eyes, and his overall health was failing. His doctor recommended an insulin pump. There was just one hitch.

Continued Page B4

@ Hanging

around

FALL FAIR participants

Mitchell Stella, 5, and cousin Ryan Stella, 9, were spied taking a

‘break at the pig pen

during the Skeena Val-

‘tay Fall Fair. The two

boys were among the entrants at this year's fair, held Aug. 30 and 31 at the fall fair in Thornhill. Mitchell’s hen, Scorch, was entered in competi- tion, as was Ryan's gui- nea pig, Oreo. Look for full results from the exhi- bit hall and the livestock compeiltions in next week's issue. Meantime,

‘for. more fair photas,

turn to page B4.

Movie fests spill onto the screen

By JENNIFER LANG LOCAL FILM fanatics will have plenty of in- teresting movies to look forward to this fall, when two series featuring the best in indepen- dent, foreign and Canadian cinema light up the silver screen at the Tillicum Twin Theatre.

First up is the Pacific Cinematheque’s Tra- velling Picture Show, returning for another fall tour with another six new movies screening on alternate Monday nights fram September to November,

Last fall’s series included the breathtaking Canadian film, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, a movie shot in the high arctic that brought a 1,000-year-old Inuit myth to life.

Contrary to accepted wisdom, that film drew a large, rapt crowd here, even though its running time spanned more than three hours and didn’t contain a single word of English, except for the sublitles,

This season’s series gets off to an exciting

‘ atu

A SCENE from Spellbound, a movie about the Wimblecon of words,

start Monday evening with the critically-ac- claimed 2003 documentary Spellbound. ,

Director Jeff Blitz realized he had a fasci- nating subject for a movie when he tuned into one of ESPN’s highest rated sporting events —

the National Spelling Bee finals in Washing- ton, D.C., which is sort of the Wimbledon of words for the grade-school crawd,

The movie follows eight young competitors who prevail despite remarkable odds} one girl’s parents are Mexican immigrants who have never learned to speak English.

“Whenever a kid fights back against the ,

big, bad dictionary, it's a moment of tiumph,” Blitz has said.

Next up on Sept. 29 is B.C.’s own Flower & Garnet, a film about a widowed father

(Callum Keith Rennie) who retreats into his”

grief, leaving his eight-year-old daughter to care for newborn son, Garnet. ~ The third is Finland’s The Man Without A Past, a comedy by one of the world's most ori- ginal directors,. Aki Kaurismaki, (remember the off-beat Leningrad Cowboys Go America’). In this movie, a man suffering from amnesia

Continued on Page B4 |

638-7283