Inject Hope into Community and my Cancer Battle

Hi, my name is Bruce Dean and I am seeking funds to continue my battles against two terminal cancers; Prostate & Lymph Node; and allow me to continue my eChopper Ride-Out Garage Street Outreach Work with Youth, Poor and Homeless.

Since a trauma-induced disability ended my decades long career in Youth Work and the professional ski industry; I've chosen to use my time to give back to community, to inject purpose into my disabled life through working to protect and advocate for youth and the homeless, while striving for social justice, always guided by intersectional priorities.

I've been given a limited time to live, but I continue to exceed all expectations of my cancer doctors, yet there is a medicine I have been lacking; hope, due to the poverty inflicted upon me.

As I fight to keep cancer at bay, I continue to go out daily on my prescribed mobility aid eChopper electric bicycle, which acts as a catalyst for the outreach work I do.

In the beginning people approach because of the appeal of my ice-breaking mobility aid eChopper, but over time I earn trust and they come to understand I have their back covered, and when able, I provide what I can to individuals, primarily from my own limited disability income, resourcefulness, and occasionally items received in partnerships with others.

I also frequently help people with bicycles; repairs and parts, building whole bikes, donating bikes to youth and families; but mostly I provide companionship; empathy and caring; I provide time to people who need to know that they are worth it, that they matter. Much of this work is done out on the street, with tools I carry with me; and some of it happens in my tiny apartment, where I feed & clothe those in need, as well as do repairs, provide access to tools, and needed parts when able ...all of this out of the eChopper Ride-Out Garage, where, unfortunately, my supply of bicycle parts is running low.

When my previous housing provided space to collect parts; my inventory of bike parts was amassed by collecting discarded and donated bicycles; which I would repair & gift to poor families in my Social Housing complex. These efforts were helped exponentially through my work with Angel's Chopper Bicycle Club here in Victoria, BC, a youth group focused on poorer families, mentoring their youth, and teaching cycling skills and bicycle maintenance.

...and this eChopper Ride-Out Garage outreach work is everything I have to live for, providing the hope my heart, soul & mind need to battle cancer, but my inadequate disability pension leaves me in need of funding:

*funds to battle my cancer

*funds needed for living expenses

*funds for my outreach work (including legal expenses)

What I'll use the funds for:

*healthy foods/supplements/medicines

*supplies for outreach work (clients)

*basic expenses my limited CPP can not cover

What is the eChopper Ride-Out Garage?

(as it exists today)

...a Safe Space for Youth & their Hearts

...it's Street Outreach for homeless

...distributes donated/purchased goods of need

...advocates for victims

...provides security/safety & video protection

The rewards I receive from my eChopper Ride-Out Garage outreach work feed my soul, and I believe provide me a life force that can help heal me. Combined with the healthy cancer fighting lifestyle I have been refining, are helping me fend of cancers the medical system deem terminal.

Whether or not I exceed the life time limits diagnosed matters less to me than the fulfilment I believe heals my body like it heals my soul; fulfilment from paying it forward by proving to those whom society discards, that they are seen and worthy of care and love.

The longer I live, the more the eChopper Ride-Out Garage will grow into an actual staffed drop-in center for youth, with street community access to tools, supplies, and services; a place where youth can be safe, in addition to accessing nutrition, hope and mentors.

My dream is to leave behind an eChopper Ride-Out Garage that will be whatever the youth & street community need at the time, with qualified staff and volunteers to provide safety and access to services ...a connection for the disconnected.

The eChopper Ride-Out Garage will be a promise to youth; to keep them Rolling, Dreaming & Healing.

I've been doing this work for free, for myself, for decades ...it's what gives me hope, but my cancer battles, inoperable neck/spine injury, extreme wide-spread arthritis, old work-injured back, combined with my disabilities make continuing my outreach work, and continuing to have hope both very difficult when mired in poverty.

To expand this healing dream, I will not solely rely upon donations & my disability pension alone; I possess a vast amount of knowledge and experience acquiring government grants and subsidies, which my poverty and disabilities provide access to greater opportunities for subsidies and grants, to help fund business start-ups, employment creation, economic development and addressing social needs.

Help me, by helping me pay it forward.

Your help for me will allow me to continue to help so many.

______________________

MY HEALTH

Spine

For at least 16 hours each day I must live laying down in bed, on my back; to rest my damaged upper spine from the violent assault while doing my outreach. The damaged several vertebrae requiring several injections into my spine, three time per year. An operation to alleviate the damage is far too risky to attempt, and the hope is that the injections and bed rest with reduce inflammation and allow it to heal as much as it will be able to.

The pain is excruciating. I can only sit up in bed for short periods of time; even shorter in a chair.

Additionally, an old work injury to my mid-back is coming back to haunt me. Bone scans for cancer revealed my arthritis has spread throughout my body, but primarily from the focal point of this old mid-back injury, which exacerbates the neck damage.

Disability (knees)

My permanent degenerative trauma-induced osteoarthritis knee injury I received while saving a woman has of course worsened, both knees are terminal, but after my total right knee replacement, I opted to keep my original left knee, in spite of it being toast.

Unfortunately, I experienced a vehicular assault that has damaged my titanium knee and am awaiting a consult, but the pain from this unaccountable violent assault has greatly increased my pain levels and left me less able to walk the short distances I was already limited to, making me more dependent upon my mobility aids.

Cancers

This is the longest story of all, but I will keep it short.

My original cancer, Melanoma was thought to have been caught before it metastasized, but I just don't know.

Prostate Cancer made itself at home in my body; but remained undiagnosed until after a year and a half of the medical system ignoring my frequent trips to the emergency ward after collapsing in pain in my groin region; so by the time I was tested, it was full blown stage 4 terminal prostate cancer, with expectations of Radiation Therapy combined with Hormone Therapy at first, then an assumed surgery to catch cancer that was missed or persisted, all to hopefully avoid chemo treatments.

Unfortunately, the cancer agency fell asleep at the wheel when my Phoenix Tears (medical marijuana oil) treatment was proving to battle my cancer successfully, so they stopped all treatments, to my peril.

My Phoenix Tears treatment eventually decreased, not out of choice, but poverty and issues from the foul social housing I am forced to live in interfered with my federal licensed cannabis garden, reducing the availability of my natural medication, and with no treatments from the BC Cancer Agency ...that when the cancer spread to my lymph nodes, and worsened due to inadequate medical attention.

So now I have cancer in my prostate and lymph nodes, both terminal, and I am at the moment going thru hormone therapy again and am awaiting a reassessment of my cancers; which is NEVER good news.

The lymph node cancer is untreatable and the hormone therapy is only "effective" for so long, and is no longer working for me.

The lymph node cancer is not what will kill me, it's the cancer(s) it gives me that will, as the uncountable lymph nodes are throughout my entire body.

I have lost so much weight as I grow weaker every day. Simple daily chores like doing dishes and walking my dog, along with health regimes like brushing my teeth, leave me exhausted and spent. I have long been too weak to wait in food bank lines.

The few who do step up and help are growing weary of compensating for a cruel system that forces the disabled into complete poverty without enough income for rent and food; weary of compensating for family who view their disabled kin as a burden, and so do nothing to help.

I am left treated by family as my mother was when she had Alzheimer's ...but after they had stole everything she had of worth from her while she was in hospital. Once my mother had nothing left of financial value to them, they ignored her and her plight, never visiting.

I alone fought for my moms rights; lost everything I owned in the process, but was successful, to the chagrin of family who now shunned me, BECAUSE they were held accountable for stealing from our sick mother.

My mother's funds were returned to her, but she died shortly after; her ashes shared with all but me.

My family turned their back on me in revenge and provided no support when I became disabled, a single father, and cancerous; leaving me to survive poverty, disability and cancer alone.

Please help. I want to live longer.