Beats cancer, rings bell

Photo: PRH

Brenda Coffin got to ring the bell in the Oncology Department at Penticton Regional Hospital.

That’s how many cancer patients celebrate the end of their chemotherapy treatment at PRH. The bell is engraved with the words: “Never give up, never surrender.”

Her family’s story started on Christmas Eve 2015, when Brenda’s younger sister Peggy learned she had breast cancer.

“I went to help her with her appointments in Calgary, and she told me I should get a mammogram done because of what she was going through,” Brenda recalled.

Although her initial test was clear, a few months later Brenda discovered a lump on her breast that was confirmed malignant. Her doctor performed a lumpectomy at the cancer clinic in Kelowna last summer.

Brenda then started chemotherapy at PRH. After six rounds of treatment, her final chemo session turned into a family affair. Her two daughters, Chloe and Gracie, made a special sign to commemorate the occasion.

“They’re my sweeties,” Coffin said. “When I first told them I had cancer, they said: ‘Mom, we’re going to help you, we’re going to get you through this.’”

Coffin is now undergoing follow-up radiation treatment in Kelowna.  

The South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation still has $7 million to raise in its $20-million campaign to provide the medical equipment for the PRH expansion, now under construction.