There was no shortage of stories that came out of Wednesday's Radiothon for Life in support of the St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation, of people who are grateful to have a hospital so close to home. One of those stories comes from Brent and Jennifer Olfert.
"It started back in 2011 in March," shared Brent. "I was diagnosed with testicular cancer."
"It started out up in Regina but after a short period of time, we were able to do most of our chemo here in Estevan. To be able to not leave home with two young girls and my wife being able to come down with me and sit beside me in the chair sure meant a lot to us."
Brent noticed the difference in having that local care during one long weekend in May when the chemotherapy treatments weren't available and he was sent to Regina Hospital.
"The couriers weren't delivering on the holidays and I couldn't miss a day of chemo so they had me go up to Regina to be admitted and take my chemo there for a couple of days. Just being without my wife and my girls for that time, it was a tough thing. They had to go to school and life had to go on so it was tough for them to be away from me too."
'If I had to be up there for the whole nine weeks, it would have been a pretty tough ordeal but to be able to be here at home with the comfort of not only my immediate family but other friends and family coming down to sit with me for a day while I sat with the chemo drip."
Brent's wife, Jennifer, also appreciated the local care.
"The staff that was here kinda let me do my thing. Every day as Brent sat in the chemo chair, I knew where all the juice boxes were or the heated blankets were and they just told me to go help myself. I can remember calling Tara Doaust int he middle of the night crying because I didn't know what was going on with Brent. Just to be able to know that you can call someone who knows what they're talking about until you have to do that, you don't realize how important that really is."
Brent shared that these days, he is feeling great.
"I was very fortunate to be able to get through it and with the chemo and the doctors' help to defeat the cancer. For about five years, I was doing follow up checkups ranging from, at the start, two to three months apart and then I went to six months and then it went to once a year. They've kind of kicked me out and said they don't want to see me again so it's a pretty good feeling to not have to go back in anymore."
"You don't realize how important it is until you need it and trust me, we all need it."
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