Peter Sawchuk Family Support Fund

Our names are Brooke and Claire, and we are honoured to be a part of the Sawchuk family as the partners of Haylee and Sam Sawchuk. Since 2015, their family has been going through life watching and supporting the man of their home, Peter Sawchuk, as he battles Glioblastoma (known as GBM, stage 4 terminal brain cancer). After brain surgery and a year of chemo and radiation, Peter defied the odds and became something of a medical marvel. His health remained reasonable, and more importantly, his charisma and sense of humour stayed stronger than ever. Despite Glioblastoma's five-year survival rate of just 6.8% and average survival length of only 8 months, Peter would spend the next 7 years of his life being the most supportive, caring, and loving father to his kids, and husband to his wife. Although unable to return to work due to cognitive decrease after the treatment, Pete continued to financially support his family with his long-term disability cheques and stock options that he earned through his 30-year career with Starbucks.

The Sawchuk family was just like any other loving family- two Kids, Haylee working on her education at SAIT, Sam not working on his education in high school, and Jodi and Peter bickering over bills at the dinner table before laughing with the rest of the family over how Jodi pronounced Wifi. Despite their hurdles, the Sawchuk’s always maintained an environment rich with love and laughs and a “door always open” policy. Sunday dinners at the Sawchuk’s was a tradition their friends and family attended regularly.

Sadly, recently (in September) his tumour returned with a vengeance, and the cancer grew back more aggressively than ever. Within weeks, his health radically worsened and caring for him became a full-time job for his family. Peter quickly became immobile, fully losing the strength in his legs and Haylee took an indefinite leave from her career to move in with her parents. Soon after that, Sam temporarily relocated to Kelowna from Calgary to do the same. Peter’s wishes are to focus on quality time and comfort care at home and to remain out of hospice. His family feels that it is worth their sacrifice to keep Peter at home and let him finish his life in the best way possible, watching sports and movies and trying to enjoy his favourite home-cooked meals.

As painful as it is to write this, it's obvious to his loved ones that Pete is nearing his final days. Along with the emotional toll of this tragedy, the overwhelming financial strain that has built up over these last four months has grown burdensome, to say the least. As the spouses of Peter and Jodi’s children, we’ve set up this fundraiser to facilitate supporting the Sawchuk family through this challenging time and contribute to Peter’s end-of-life care being the best it can be. The funds raised will be used directly towards groceries, medical expenses, lost wages, household expenses, and the cost to fulfill Peter’s burial wishes. The number of family and friends that have stepped up to help them thus far has been truly touching-they couldn’t have gotten through these months without them despite the Sawchuks (especially Peter) being too prideful to ever ask for help.

Thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to read this and for all your encouraging messages and support. It was difficult to come up with a “goal” amount for this as truly anything helps, we are completely humbled to be connected to such amazing people. Happy new year everyone.