Frank Bruno said he and many other people in Sudbury are doing what they can to make his older brother's dream come true.
Sam Bruno, who died of colorectal cancer in July, spent the last few years of his life advocating for increased access to positron emission tomography (PET) scans in Ontario.
Four hundred fifty people gathered at the Caruso Club Nov. 18 to raise money towards a $3.5 million campaign to bring a PET scanner to Sudbury.
"What we are trying to do is expedite the process so the machine arrives sooner rather than later, so we can save hundreds of lives," Frank Bruno said.
PET scans are nuclear medicine diagnostic images.
They can provide information about both the location and the extent of the metabolic activity of abnormal tissues such as cancer and have the potential to identify the areas of abnormal metabolic activity that are not always found using MRIs or CT scans.
The scans are used in clinical oncology, but also to diagnose brain diseases, various types of dementia and heart disease.
Sam Bruno received two PET scans during his life, one of which cost him $2,500 and was performed at a private clinic in Mississauga, and another which was part of a government-funded clinical trial.
The second scan showed that his cancer had metastasized into his liver. He was able to get into an experimental therapeutic chemotherapy program at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, something which he believed prolonged his life.
For years, PET scanners were not a publicly insured service in Ontario, and were used mostly for clinical trials.
Struggle
Knowing what PET scans had meant in his struggle against cancer, Sam Bruno began fighting to have them covered by OHIP.
He approached Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin a few years ago, and told him that PET scans should be moved out of the clinical trial stage, and made available to everyone.
The ombudsman did take up the case, and released a report about the subject in late 2008.
But months later, when the government still hadn't made any announcement on the subject, Bruno attended a press conference put on by Marin at Queen's Park, and asked what had happened.
"He actually asked the ombudsman why it was taking so long right there in front the media," said Sudbury MPP France Gélinas, who worked closely with Bruno on the issue.
"He said 'I will get you an answer within 30 days.' Those 30 days rolled by, and Sam phoned me and said 'This has been 30 days, and the ombudsman said he would give us an answer today.' We followed up on that. I phoned the ombudsman. He phoned the ombudsman."
Last July, shortly after Bruno and Gélinas made those phone calls, the cancer patient got his wish. The province announced that PET scans would become a publicly insured service.
But of the 10 PET scanners in Ontario, none are located in northeastern Ontario, and Sudbury patients have to travel to receive the diagnostic test. The only PET scanner in Northern Ontario is located at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre 1,000 kilometres way.
So Sam Bruno began a new fight. He and Gélinas began circulating a petition asking for a PET scanner to be brought to Sudbury.
"Some of the people (who need PET scans) are so ill. Imagine travelling five hours to get there (to a PET scanner). When you're ill, it's difficult to travel five hours," Bruno said in 2009.
"Also, we (in Sudbury) are the hub of the north. We have the Northeastern Cancer Research Centre here."
Operating costs
Even though efforts are underway to raise enough money to purchase a PET scanner for Sudbury, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews hasn't agreed to fund the operating costs for a machine in Sudbury.
She said there are currently no wait times for patients to receive PET scans in Ontario.
However, Frank Bruno is still optimistic the machine's operating costs will be covered by the government.
Although Matthews has never promised to fund the operating costs of a PET scanner in Sudbury, she also has never said she won't fund those costs, he said.
The family thinks it's important to bring a PET scanner to Sudbury, not only to make Sam Bruno's dream come true, but to give people in the northeast equitable access to an important diagnostic tool.
Bruno said if his brother had been alive to attend the event, he would have been "very humbled" and "very thrilled."
Petition
Gélinas said she has risen in the legislature each day since September 2009 to read the names of another 200 of the 25,000 people who have signed the petition in favour of bringing a PET scanner to Sudbury.
"The people here (at the event) came in part to honour Sam's memory, but in part, also, because they now understand the issue of equity of access," Gélinas said.
"What is going on in our province right now is not fair. I'm really proud of (those at the dinner). We are standing up and talking loud, and saying we, as northerners, want the same thing as everybody else in Ontario."
Sam Bruno was only 55 years old when he died.
Heidi Ulrichsen is a reporter with Northern Life and a former staff reporter with the Northern Ontario Medial Journal.
