Our dear friend and colleague, Kaley Ruel (Berg), was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the end of May this year, after a 10+ year battle with endometriosis related complications.

On May 14th, Kaley was rushed to West Coast General Hospital with severe abdominal pain and underwent emergency surgery for what was thought to be a ruptured endometrioma (ovarian cyst arising from endometriosis). At her post operative follow up two weeks later, she received the shocking news that the pathology of the cyst had come back as cancer.

From that point forward, Kaley and her family were in a time warp, consumed by various tests and diagnostic imaging, awaiting results and more information that felt like it took several months. At the end of June, Kaley met with her oncologist who confirmed that the cancer was a high grade aggressive endometrioid adenocarcinoma and would require extensive abdominal surgery followed by 6 cycles of chemotherapy. This was not the news the family was hoping for.

Kaley underwent the surgery on July 17th at Victoria General Hospital, just in time to get home to celebrate her sweet daughter’s 3rd birthday. The surgery went very well, and Kaley still awaits her staging results at the time of this writing. Kaley will begin her chemotherapy treatments on August 13th in Nanaimo.

Kaley is immensely thankful for all the care she’s received thus far from the skilled and caring teams at both WCGH and BC Cancer Agency in Victoria. Her physician team especially has taken Kaley’s hopes and wishes into great consideration while balancing the need to eliminate any evidence of disease or risk of recurrence.

But living in a remote community on Vancouver Island means Kaley’s treatments thus far and into the future come with significant expenses for travel and accommodation away from home. Kaley will also be accessing integrative cancer therapies both in Port Moody, Victoria, and locally. The goal of these being to enhance the effects of her chemotherapy treatment while significantly reducing the number and severity of side effects, and minimizing the risk of cancer recurrence. Some of the treatments are the standard of care in Germany and other European countries, such as local regional hyperthermia and IV mistletoe, but as of yet are not part of conventional therapy in Canada. Evidence demonstrates better short and long term outcomes when cancer is treated with a (personalized) multi-dimensional integrative medicine approach, however many of these therapies are not covered by MSP or the family’s extended medical insurance. The treatments are estimated to cost approximately $3000 weekly for the duration of chemotherapy.

Kaley is a proud and loving mother to her bright, beautiful and energetic daughter. Kaley resolves to beat cancer and to live a long, healthy, vibrant life for herself and her young family. Once healthy, Kaley is also excited to get back to work in her community as a public health dietitian, sharing her passion for improving the health and wellbeing of the population through food and nutrition, striving for equitable access especially for mothers, young children and their families.

The Ruel Family given permission to set up a fund where those looking to help can donate to a cause that will have the biggest impact on this difficult journey. Kaley and her family are so humbled and grateful for all of the love and support. ❤️