Hi, my name is Earl Dearing. I'm a local musician who many would recognize as a staple at Billy Barker Days, and around Quesnel over the years, busking and selling CDs of my original music. This year I had it all ready, CDs were burnt, new strings put on my guitar, I

just had a fresh batch of album covers printed at BCP, man was I stoked. Billy Barker Days usually will carry me through a month or two, and this year looked to be even better as the skies weren't filled with smoke and ash. The Thursday that Billy Barker Days was to start, I suffered a couple epileptic seizures and ambulance was called. The ambulance showed up along with two fire duty officers and they transferred me downstairs in a chair to get me out to the ambulance. While the one paramedic was readying the gurney, the other paramedic and two fire duty officers attempted to transfer me to the gurney before it was ready, I went into another seizure, and they dropped me, strapped in the chair, on my face on the sidewalk. I have a few hazy, horrible memories of being in the emergency room and then; I woke up on the Saturday, breathing tube in, multiple I.V.s, black eyes and sorer then anything. I was then transferred to a room with a dementia patient who insisted on swearing at me and throwing food, so for everybody's best interest, I came home, even though they said my kidneys are shot and they wanted me to stay.

I tried calling BC Ambulance, who gave me a number to call. I reached out to the person who I was told to, and they forwarded my details to the Board that looks into stuff like that. They essentially said that there wasn't much they could do for me, not even help get an apology let alone compensation of any sort. I tried reaching out to a civil lawyer as well as a personal injury lawyer, but have been told there's not much there for me to pursue.

It's been over 7 years since I had a seizure so I honestly didn't have any way of seeing it coming. I planned, and spent in preparation for Billy Barker Days, only to not only be out that money, but to not have the opportunity to make any during the event, or work after as I'm waiting for results on my kidneys. I am hoping to at least recover some of the money I spent, but would be great if I could come out ahead a little bit. I enjoy playing for people, and I missed my favorite time to play for people. Quesnel doesn't do shows anymore, so that is usually my one chance to actually give'r and let people hear what I have to offer musically. Anything I raise is literally just going to be buying me groceries this month so any help would be more appreciated than words can say. If you had thoughts of chucking some change or a bill in my case this year and didn't get the chance, I would appreciate it now.