Brain cancer victim a study in perseverance Edmonton Sun
In 2000, Kent Pankow was told he had a year to live.
He’s still here.
“Kent is a total superstar,” says his wife Deb Hurford.
Watching her chef husband battle with glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of brain cancer has changed her own outlook on life.
“I never thought of myself a glass half-full kind of person,” she says. “But when you’re living with someone who’s fighting every day, it really changes your perspective. You see the positive side of everything.”
In 2000, Pankow had brain surgery to remove the tumour and it remained in remission until 2008, when a routine follow-up scan showed it was growing again.
Regular chemotherapy failed to kill it, and by last fall doctors in Canada said the tumour was too big and in too tricky a spot for surgery.
Pankow and Hurford refused to give up. For the past two years Pankow has tried numerous treatments, many of which aren’t covered by government health insurance and cost tens of thousands of dollars.
