For the last two months, my husband and I have been travelling through Canada.
We both love this country because of its nature, its tolerant people and its quietness.
After two weeks, my husband developed a growth on his calf muscle. It became bigger and bigger. So we visited a hospital where the surgeon removed it within a few minutes.
She asked us to phone after a week or 10 days and we did.
However, getting a phone connection was quite difficult and getting the surgeon on the phone was even harder.
After each phone call we became more and more worried.
On Wednesday morning, we finally got the answer and it was skin cancer. The doctor advised us to go to a hospital again and have a bigger part removed so that all the cancer cells were gone.
At that moment we were a little bit east of Watson Lake. We knew Whitehorse had a hospital, so we drove 450 kilometres.
We are from Holland and we live in The Hague. We have, in a five-kilometre radius from our home, five hospitals, so this is something completely different.
At the Continental Divide trade post we had to get gas. I think that I looked a bit blue. The man of the station saw me staring at a nice white fur from a snow rabbit. He asked:
“How much do you want to pay?”
I had no idea and said so.
Then he said, “I give it to you as a friendly gift from the people of Yukon.”
The fur is so nice and soft, it really comforts me.
At 3:30 p.m. we arrived in Whitehorse. A friend of ours, Leo Boon, living in Whitehorse, came with us to the hospital.
At 6 p.m. we were back in the RV after a surgeon removed the rest of the bad cells (we hope).
The surgeon said this is not an aggressive type of cancer and nowadays about one in three people get this.
Both, my husband and me were absolutely astonished about this day.
The professional way of acting and, even more important, the kindness of all the people we met and, of course, especially the man at Continental Divide made a big impression.
Thank you, Yukon.
Margriet van Beinum
The Hague