Fernando Penedo helped build Bluewater Health and he was back at the hospital in Sarnia Monday to talk about care he has received there in recent years as a cancer patient, and to thank Nova Chemicals for its $500,000 gift to help renovate the cancer clinic.
Fernando Penedo helped build Bluewater Health and he was back at the hospital in Sarnia Monday to talk about care he has received there in recent years as a cancer patient, and to thank Nova Chemicals for its $500,000 gift to help renovate the cancer clinic.
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Penedo worked on a major expansion of the former St. Joseph Hospital decades ago and again during the more recent expansion of what is now known as Bluewater Health.
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“I’m very familiar with the site,” Penedo said. “This is like being at home.”
Since being diagnosed with cancer three years ago, “unfortunately, it is my second home,” he said.
Penedo said he’s happy the community, including Nova, are helping the hospital foundation with its campaign to raise $3.7 million for renovations to the cancer clinic which are expected to begin soon and be completed by spring 2025.
The clinic is “a much, much needed facility,” Penedo said. “It’s amazing the job they do.”
More than $2 million has been raised so far for the renovations, said Kathy Alexander, executive director of Bluewater Health Foundation.
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“This is just a really wonderful contribution to the campaign,” she said about Nova’s $500,000 gift.
The expanded and renovated clinic will be named for Nova.
“Local health care close to home is really, really vital and important when it comes to patients’ experience with cancer diagnosis,” Alexander said.
The clinic sees more than 300 new patients and more than 6,000 total patient visits a year, said Kenneth Yoshida, an oncologist at Bluewater Health.
The facility has four physicians and about 12 registered nurses and administrative staff.
“This is will have a huge impact and provide us with the proper space to allow us to function in the most operable fashion possible,” Yoshida said.
“We need to see patients as soon as possible,” with only a “minimal wait to get their treatments,” he said.
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“We’ve outgrown our current space,” said Ray Meyer, director of surgery at Bluewater Health. “This new space will provide us ample room to care for the patients now and patients in the future.”
Bluewater Health has begun the process of selecting a contractor and “the work should start fairly soon,” Meyer said.
The cancer clinic will remain open during the renovations and there should be no impact on its services while the work is completed during 12 to 18 months, he said.
The clinic will remain in its current location at Bluewater Health in Sarnia but will expand.
“Right now, we have four examining rooms and we’re moving up to six rooms,” Meyer said. “We’ll have a family conference room” where physicians and staff can meet with patients and families,” he said.
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The new design is intended to be “more therapeutic” with colors and a theme that are “more holistic, versus the stark, white clinical feeling” its replacement, Meyer said.
“To be involved with this special donation to a fantastic cause, I can think of no better start to my career with Nova and my joining the Sarnia community,” said Joe Wolf, who was appointed in September as vice-president of manufacturing for Nova’s eastern division.
“By supporting the redevelopment of Bluewater Health’s cancer clinic, we are fostering hope, resilience, and enhanced access to life-saving care for many years to come,” he said.
“This significant contribution is a demonstration of Nova Chemicals’ long-standing history of investing in the well-being of the communities where we live and work.”
Wolf also spoke Monday about a period of five years a few decades ago when he lost his grandfather, as well as “my hero, my idol, my father,” and then his mother to cancer.
“It took me a long stretch to dig out of that,” he said.
“Two in five Canadians in the course of their lifetime will be diagnosed with cancer,” Wolf said. “That just underpins the necessity to have access to the type of care this facility provides.”
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