A Nova Scotia woman fighting a chronic health condition that was caused by her cancer treatment says the next leader of the provincial government needs to help people who require specialized care.
Jennifer Brady has lymphedema and has been locked in a battle with the province over her care.
Brady, 46, received surgery to treat her cervical cancer in 2020. The surgery was successful, but it left her with the chronic condition that causes painful tissue swelling.
The mother of two says her everyday life is impacted — from the time she can spend with her kids to the hobbies she once loved.
“I used to be a runner. I would run every day religiously. I loved it. I can’t do that anymore,” she explained.
“Walking my dogs, I really can’t do that anymore. And just everything else I love, including my job, has essentially been taken away.”
Her pain has been so great, and the battle to receive out-of-country surgery so difficult, she applied for a medically-assisted death. Her application was denied because her condition was not considered “irremediable.”
The only relief she’s found was treatment in Japan that she received in 2022, which she paid for herself after re-mortgaging her house. Her swelling decreased and some of her symptoms were relieved.
She would like to have further surgery, but says there are no practitioners in the province who specialize in lymphedema treatment and there are few options for symptom management. So she continues to fight for funding to pay for more surgery abroad.
Brady confronted PC Leader Tim Houston with her concerns on Sunday, during the kick-off for his re-election campaign.
“He did call me the next morning to his credit, which I appreciated, of course,” she told Global News.
“That didn’t really result in any meaningful changes for me. The conversation was mostly him acknowledging that he has heard my concerns.”
She says government needs to do better to offer out-of-province care to Nova Scotians.
Meanwhile, her case for medical reimbursement is currently under judicial review, and she’s still awaiting a decision.
On the campaign trail, NDP Leader Claudia Chender says her party supports Brady and Nova Scotians in similar situations.
“In Jennifer Brady’s case, this is a direct extension of the health-care crisis that we’re in,” said Chender.
“How many people in this province have been waiting years to see a specialist? How many people in this province can’t even find a specialist to be referred to?”
In a statement, the Liberals say their leader, Zach Churchill, has offered his support to advocate for Brady.
The PCs say the policies for funded out-of-province services are made with clinicians, but they are willing to make changes if the policies are not working for Nova Scotians.
Meanwhile, Brady waits.
She says her fight is an important one that could help many others.
“I think an important part of this is that this could happen to anybody. And I guess more specifically, it could happen predominantly to any woman,” she said,
“Lymphedema is something that is quite common after breast cancer surgery or gynecological surgery because they remove lymph nodes. So we actually don’t know how many people in Nova Scotia have lymphedema because the research isn’t there.”