ZR
10-11-2017, 06:57 AM
He gave them Hec.
When it came to life-saving surgery for pancreatic cancer patients that was available in other parts of the world but not in Ontario, Mayor Hector Macmillan of Trent Hills didn’t care whose toes he stepped on.
“I’ve been ‘sentenced to die’ by @DrEricHoskins using a corrupt, RIGGED political system engineered to NOT pay for out-of-country health care,” Macmillan said in a now famous tweet in August 2016.
His point: There was new technology and equipment available in Toronto hospitals called the IRE Nano knife, but Ontario’s health ministry had not given it the green light and was also not funding patients to go out of country for such treatment.
“Are you really just going to let me die?” he asked.
Macmillan didn’t wait to find out — and with the help of social media — $30,000 was raised to allow the popular politician to go to Germany for the operation.
And it worked — for a little while, at least.
Sadly, it was like a punch to the gut when I got word 59-year-old Hector died at home Tuesday morning surrounded by his wife Sandy and his four loving children: Leeann, Adam, Mindy and Peter.
It was just a year removed from his trip to Germany, a surgery that perhaps should have been done months before in Ontario. And thanks to Hector’s efforts, it can now be done here as part of a three-year clinical trial.
That will be one of his many legacies.
“He took a turn for the worse 72 hours ago,” said daughter Mindy. “He fought to the end, but when it was time, he went peacefully.”
I will have more to say about Hector in a column later this week and will run tributes as they come in. I suspect some will come from politicians, some from cancer patients he tried to help and some from his constituents.
Postmedia’s Pete Fisher and I reached out to Health Minister Eric Hoskins for a tribute but a spokesman told us that while the senior politician’s office learned of the sad news, he was out of the country and would not provide a comment.
Pete and I agree Hec would have got a kick out of the irony of the health minister being out of the country and once again ignoring him — hence, why he never changed his Twitter handle: “Betrayed, abandoned, and SENTENCED TO DIE by OHIP, the outdated, rigged, and corrupt Ontario health-care system.”
Hoskins and Premier Kathleen Wynne still have time to pay their respects.
Hec’s visitation is set for Friday, from 4 p.m.-8 p.m. at Weavers Funeral Home in Campbellford. His funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Andrews Presbyterian church in Campbellford.
For me, Hector was a hero. He wanted to live. But mostly he wanted other people to live.
In the end, he moved the ball — perhaps too late to save himself but not for others.
“If we have the machine to save lives and doctors wanting to use it, I don’t understand why a government would get in the way,” he told me.
In the end, he won the political battle but not the fight against his cancer.
R.I.P. Mayor Macmillan. You were one Hec of a guy.
When it came to life-saving surgery for pancreatic cancer patients that was available in other parts of the world but not in Ontario, Mayor Hector Macmillan of Trent Hills didn’t care whose toes he stepped on.
“I’ve been ‘sentenced to die’ by @DrEricHoskins using a corrupt, RIGGED political system engineered to NOT pay for out-of-country health care,” Macmillan said in a now famous tweet in August 2016.
His point: There was new technology and equipment available in Toronto hospitals called the IRE Nano knife, but Ontario’s health ministry had not given it the green light and was also not funding patients to go out of country for such treatment.
“Are you really just going to let me die?” he asked.
Macmillan didn’t wait to find out — and with the help of social media — $30,000 was raised to allow the popular politician to go to Germany for the operation.
And it worked — for a little while, at least.
Sadly, it was like a punch to the gut when I got word 59-year-old Hector died at home Tuesday morning surrounded by his wife Sandy and his four loving children: Leeann, Adam, Mindy and Peter.
It was just a year removed from his trip to Germany, a surgery that perhaps should have been done months before in Ontario. And thanks to Hector’s efforts, it can now be done here as part of a three-year clinical trial.
That will be one of his many legacies.
“He took a turn for the worse 72 hours ago,” said daughter Mindy. “He fought to the end, but when it was time, he went peacefully.”
I will have more to say about Hector in a column later this week and will run tributes as they come in. I suspect some will come from politicians, some from cancer patients he tried to help and some from his constituents.
Postmedia’s Pete Fisher and I reached out to Health Minister Eric Hoskins for a tribute but a spokesman told us that while the senior politician’s office learned of the sad news, he was out of the country and would not provide a comment.
Pete and I agree Hec would have got a kick out of the irony of the health minister being out of the country and once again ignoring him — hence, why he never changed his Twitter handle: “Betrayed, abandoned, and SENTENCED TO DIE by OHIP, the outdated, rigged, and corrupt Ontario health-care system.”
Hoskins and Premier Kathleen Wynne still have time to pay their respects.
Hec’s visitation is set for Friday, from 4 p.m.-8 p.m. at Weavers Funeral Home in Campbellford. His funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Andrews Presbyterian church in Campbellford.
For me, Hector was a hero. He wanted to live. But mostly he wanted other people to live.
In the end, he moved the ball — perhaps too late to save himself but not for others.
“If we have the machine to save lives and doctors wanting to use it, I don’t understand why a government would get in the way,” he told me.
In the end, he won the political battle but not the fight against his cancer.
R.I.P. Mayor Macmillan. You were one Hec of a guy.