YORKTON – Members of the public gathered at City Centre Park Sept. 4 for Scott Fitzsimmons 5th Birthday Party.
And though Fitzsimmons isn't actually five years old, he considers Sept. 4 as a special day in his life.
"I don't look five but I had a stem cell transplant Sept. 4 of 2019 and they say that that's your zero birthday. So the reason it's special is for one — five years is a pretty big deal for many cancer patients to make it to," said Fitzsimmons in an interview with SaskToday.ca
In 2019 Fitzsimmons was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a cancer of the lymphoid line of blood cells characterized by the development of large numbers of immature lymphocytes as described by Wikipedia.
Fitzsimmons said he was excited to hear about the possibilities of a stem cell transplant when he learned about it, but was also aware of the negative possibilities.
"One of them that stood out to me was that 45 per cent of stem cell transplant patients don't survive past five years," said Fitzsimmons, adding, "in the back of my mind five years was kind of a milestone."
Fitzsimmons said the idea to host a barbecue came to him several months ago, and noted he wanted to give back to the organizations that have helped him through his journey and made his life "much easier" over the past five years.
"Because I'm still struggling with different things — with pain in different places — and also I lost my sight four years ago. I want to honour the people that have gone through this — people that have survived — but also those that haven't survived. Survivors guilt is a real thing," said Fitzsimmons.
In attendance for the event were members of Brayden Ottenbreit Close Cuts for Cancer, who Fitzsimmons says he's been working with for over 19 years.
"Greg and Leone [Ottenbreit] have been very special to me so my first phone call was to them to say 'do you think this could work — is this something that you'd be willing to come on board with' and they said 'absolutely.'"
"It's something that I didn't want to do without them," said Fitzsimmons.
Fitzsimmons said the funds raised are destined for two different organizations in the province, the Sask Cancer Foundation and the Stem Cell Ward at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.
"Because that's the only place in Sask that you can get a stem cell transplant," said Fitzsimmons.
"As we've gone through a lot of the difficulties that come with it we wanted to do something to kind of lighten the load for the patients so we're working together with the Stem Cell Ward to make donations to all the patients that do end up going through their ward."
