The Cancer Sept-Rivières organization is born

Cancer Fermont, an organization helping people with cancer and their loved ones, now has its counterpart in Sept-Îles. Founded last December, Cancer Sept-Rivières will begin its activities in the coming weeks.

I’m so proud to be able to officially announce this to you today.rejoices the president of the two organizations, Denis Grenier, at the microphone of the show Hello Coastmardi.

It’s going to be a good start to the year. We are going to start helping people on the same principle as Cancer Fermonthe explains.

Since 2005, Denis Grenier has been involved in Fermont in this cause which is close to his heart. At the time, cancer prevalence rates were lower than today. There were almost no cancers here in Fermont and even elsewhere in Quebecremembers Denis Grenier.

Over the years, he notes that cases increase and that an increasingly young clientele is affected.

At the time [on] had mentioned to me “Mr. Grenier, you will see, there will be more and more cancers. It will triple”. My dear, he wasn’t wrong.

The mission of Cancer Sept-Rivières is identical to that of Cancer Fermont: to help with all the sidelines of the disease, explains Mr. Grenier.

Services will be offered on a case-by-case basis. Among these, paying transportation costs for medical appointments, picking up prescriptions at the pharmacy, doing snow removal or cleaning at home, or even offering food assistance, are part of the mandate of the ‘body.

Cancer is terribly expensive. There are some who will deprive themselves of eatingdeplores Mr. Grenier. We are going to make the difference.

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Inflated costs in remote regions

According to a report published in December 2024 by the Canadian Cancer Society, treatments and loss of income cost the average Canadian patient nearly $33,000.

In addition, people with cancer and their loved ones pay 20% of the total costs of cancer in Canada. In 2024, this amount will reach $7.5 billion, according to the organization.

In remote areas, such as on the North Shore, it is even more expensive, estimates Denis Grenier. Serious cancers are happening in Quebec. When it’s pancreatic cancer, when it’s lymph node cancer or advanced breast cancer, we have no choice.

In twenty years of operation, Mr. Grenier estimates that Cancer Fermont has provided financial assistance of approximately two million dollars to patients and their loved ones.

The organization, which has operated without subsidies since its creation, can count on the financial support of several large businesses in the region, explains Denis Grenier.

By helping […]people realized that it was really useful. And the companies, three-quarters of the time, the people who get cancer are people who work for these companies or their spouse or child.he reports.

The companies understood fairly quickly that it was important because we helped their employees.

We have big mining companies in Fermont and they will all follow me to Sept-Îles. It’s confirmed. And there are others who will be added.

Denis Grenier hopes that Cancer Sept-Rivières will benefit from a starting sum of $150,000 to $200,000 to launch its operations.

The Cancer Sept-Rivières team must meet this week to determine when it will begin its activities, but Denis Grenier is already thinking bigger.

It’s not over yet. It started in Sept-Îles, but I have Baie-Comeau in my sights, Havre-Saint-Pierre and elsewhere in Quebec, the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, etc.

With information from Mathieu Pineau