A mother of two with Stage 4 breast cancer is speaking out about the months-long wait to see an oncologist, which she fears cost her precious time.
B.C. Cancer data provided to CBC News shows that while care wait times are improving, British Columbia continues to lag behind other provinces.
Sara Gillooly, a 40-year-old Port Moody, B.C., woman, is hesitant to talk about the survival chances of her Stage 4 breast cancer. She doesn’t want to scare her 11-year-old daughter Alina or four-year-old son Taig.
“When you have metastatic breast cancer, you’re down to 25 per cent to make it to five years,” Gillooly says, her voice cracking.
Gillooly was speaking from the legislature where she was accompanied by her close friend, independent MLA for Penticton-Summerland, Amelia Boultbee.
Gillooly is looking back on the eight months since she first found a lump in her breast and is questioning whether quicker action could have stopped the cancer from spreading to her bones and lungs.
“I felt like our system was just letting me down a little bit. Even though the doctors and surgeons have been amazing, it was the wait times that really bugged me.”
After feeling the lump in her breast last May, Gillooly was diagnosed with breast cancer on July 1. She still remembers the nurse who went into work on the stat holiday to give her the results. She had surgery to remove the tumour on July 28.
It was another two months until her first meeting with an oncologist — well beyond the national benchmark of four weeks.
“The system kept telling me I wasn’t a priority. They said, ‘Don’t worry, this is a good thing you’re waiting two months to see a doctor. That means that you’re okay.’”
That delay meant key diagnostic tests couldn’t start, she says, including a genomic test called an Oncotype DX test, which determines the likelihood of cancer recurring.
When Gillooly finally got the results, it indicated a high chance of the cancer returning.
By early November, tests showed her cancer had spread to her lungs.
“I always think, would those months have made a difference?” she asks.
B.C. struggling to meet benchmark
Data from B.C. Cancer shows the province is still struggling to meet the four week benchmark between referral and seeing an oncologist.
Just 63 per cent of new patients saw a medical oncologist within that time frame. For patients who need radiation therapy, the results were worse. Just 51 per cent of new patients saw a radiation oncologist within four weeks.
New data from B.C. Cancer reveals how many British Columbian patients are taking advantage of a government program that provides coverage for faster radiation therapy in Bellingham. While the numbers are not as high as the government initially forecast, B.C. Cancer insists the program is operating at full capacity and helping reduce cancer wait times. Katie DeRosa reports.
B.C. Cancer chief medical officer Dr. Paris-Ann Ingledew says in a statement while she can’t speak to the specifics of Gillooly’s case, “we know that any wait is too long for someone with cancer.”
Ingledew says patients’ cancer journeys “start long before they are referred to B.C. Cancer. Most cancer surgeries and diagnostic imaging is done by regional health authorities. Once an individual’s cancer diagnosis is confirmed, they are then referred to B.C. Cancer.”
The head of the union that represents more than 23,000 health-care professionals working in hospitals says she’s dismayed by Gillooly’s story.
“As heartbreaking and incredibly challenging this specific situation is, the unfortunate reality is that it is all too common,” says Sarah Kooner, president of the Health Sciences Association.
Kooner says some delays are caused by a shortage of professionals in diagnostic imaging, particularly for PET scans — a key test required before some patients can proceed with treatment.
“There are fewer than 30 PET technologists working in all of B.C.” Kooner says. “And thousands of British Columbians need to be seen by them. That leads to a terrible bottle neck.”
For the past year the province has been sending cancer patients to Bellingham, Washington for treatment because wait times for radiation therapy in BC are among the worst in the country.
One of those patients is Don Helgeson from Nanaimo.
And he just finished 20 sessions of radiation treatment at the Peace Health St. Joseph Medical centre in Bellingham.
B.C. Cancer says it has reduced wait times to start cancer treatment.
Just over 90 per cent of new patients are starting radiation therapy within four weeks. That’s up from 75 per cent in December 2023, when backlogs forced B.C. to send some cancer patients south to Bellingham, Wash., for treatment.
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which tracks health care wait times across the country, B.C.’s wait times for radiation are still the worst in the country based on data from 2024 to 2025.
Premier David Eby insists things have improved since last year. He pointed to hundreds of doctors and technicians that have been hired and four new cancer centres slated to open in Nanaimo, Kamloops, Surrey and Burnaby in the coming years.
B.C. Cancer says since April 2023, it has hired 85 full time medical staff, including 38 medical and radiation oncologists and 25 general practitioners in oncology.
Despite that, “There’s still a huge strain on the system,” Eby says.
