Joanna Pallister's Cancer & Housing Future Victory

Hello, kind and wonderful friends,

Wade Pallister here. You probably clicked over here because you have read our latest update on social media and now know that we have faced some significant challenges as a family lately. First, thank you SO MUCH to all of you who have reached out to express your kind, encouraging, and supportive good wishes, thoughts and prayers.

For those of you who don't know, on December 2nd I took my wife, Joanna, for a routine colonoscopy when the doctor discovered that she had a cancerous tumour in her colon. Further imaging and consultation have confirmed that she has operable stage 2 colorectal cancer and needs to have surgery to remove the mass as well as the surrounding lymph nodes. The lymph nodes will be tested, and if the cancer has spread, it is classed as stage 3 and she will need further treatment. The prognosis for a cure is good, but the process will be unpleasant. She has surgery scheduled for January 5th and will be in the hospital for 2-5 days with at least a 2-month recovery period. Many of you also know Joanna spent from July 2022 - May 2023 recovering from significant head injuries. She was so excited to be back working full time as an Educational Assistant, so being away from the job and the students she loves is a real blow.

On top of this challenging news, we have been navigating the insanity of the Vancouver housing market trying to find a new house to rent as our current home was sold in October, and at this writing, we need to move out on Feb 1st. The good news is that three weeks ago we found a beautiful house to rent with a four-year lease. BUT... the owner had rented the house to another party until June 30 just the day before. We put together a proposal for the new owners of our current home, asking if we could stay renting here until the end of June, and sent it off Nov. 30, only to learn that 2 days later Jo had cancer. Jo’s doctors have expressed concern about the possibility of us moving during treatment and the registered letter we sent to the new owners has yet to be signed for. We finally managed to get an email to them through the real estate agents from the sale of our house but the only thing we have been told is that "they are out of the country dealing with a family matter". We have shared the news of Jo's diagnosis with the new owners, along with a doctor's note, but have still not received a response from them.

Because I work as a Lead Set Dresser in the Vancouver film industry a small bit of good news is that the Hollywood actors' strike is finally over... BUT we also learned that the movie I will be working on has pushed its start date back and I will not begin work until approx January 29th. This is good news as far as the timing of Joanna's surgery and caring for my family, but hard news financially as my government Employment Insurance ran out at the beginning of December. Other than a few one-off jobs I have been out of work since the middle of July. My challenge as a husband and father is that I know that it is a blessing that my job has been pushed back to allow me to focus on being present for my wife and children at this critical time in our lives, but the part of my brain that has been culturally programmed by oppressive, fear-based, scarcity-mindset capitalism is concerned about our family budget, especially regarding our housing situation and our potential upcoming rent.

SOOOO many of you have reached out from all over the world to ask how you can help and offer your support - and for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. In one of my past careers as a volunteer missionary in a faith-based organization, I spent a lot of time asking people for money, which can be a very humbling and vulnerable position to be in. I am also aware that thousands of my fellow Vancouver film workers are in difficult financial and housing situations and my heart goes out to them. I am reminding myself how much I love and appreciate each one of you and that if you were in trouble and needed some cash, I would want to help you out... so all that being said, will you please consider one of the following donations -

$20 = One day of parking in the hospital parkade.

$50 = A simple lunch for 2 in downtown Vancouver, close to the hospital.

$100 = A not-quite-full tank of gas for our family minivan to do doctor's appointments, hospital visits or to buy groceries.

$250 = One smaller round of groceries for our 3 ravenous teenagers

$500 = A larger Costco shop for our family

??? = A different amount to help with the unknown February rent?

What I appreciate most of all is that this experience has already reminded me how incredibly lucky my family is to have all of you in our lives, looking out for us.

With all our love,

~Wade, Joanna, Sunny, Kip, & Pax