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The newspaper of record for Nanaimo and region since 1874 || Saturday, July 18, 2015
» Health
POLITICS
Crohn’s disease won’t stop teen’s summer camp trip
Province calls on cities to aid small business SPENCER ANDERSON DAILY NEWS
For Ashtyn it turned into a skin infection, which turned into a bone infection, which resulted in surgery. She spent two weeks in the hospital and four months later she’s still on antibiotics. The original antibiotics that doctors gave her turned toxic and she almost died. Through the healing process Ashtyn has had two CAT scans, two ultrasounds, two bone scans, X-rays, IV’s at the children’s hospital and home IV’s. “My thumb’s doing good now,” Ashtyn said. Ashtyn said she’s excited to attend the camp, which is operated near Bragg Creek, Alta. It runs from July 26 to 31.
Some municipalities need to do more to support small business development, according to Naomi Yamamoto, minister of state for tourism and small business. Yamamoto was in Parksville Friday for a tour of small businesses in the city’s downtown. She was joined by Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce executive director Kim Burden, city Mayor Marc Lefebvre and fellow cabinet minister and Parksville-Qualicum MLA Michelle Stilwell. The province is promoting its annual Open for Business Awards, which provides $10,000 to municipalities that meet the province’s criteria for small business development. The award must be used to fund a local program that supports or provides incentives for small business. Parksville was one of nine cities and towns to win the award last year. The deadline to enter this year’s awards closed Friday. She said municipalities should follow business-friendly suit by lowering the tax burden and taking other measures like reducing “red tape.” “Building permits and permitting is one of the biggest beefs that I hear from small businesses,” she said during breakfast at a local café. Yamamoto said it is up to individual cities and towns to develop programs or policies to attract certain sectors to set up shop. “But, what’s kind of nice is we’re actually seeing small businesses happening in communities outside of the Lower Mainland that are into high tech, that are in tourism, that are eco-tourism based,” she said. “A lot of new businesses that we didn’t even have on radar 10 years ago.” NDP critic for small business Nicholas Simons did not return a request for comment.
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Ashtyn Lively, 16, and her mother, Cheryl Lively, in their Nanaimo home on Friday. [AARON HINKS/DAILY NEWS]
Condition can be highly debilitating in some cases AARON HINKS DAILY NEWS
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or some teens, going off to summer camp is just part of growing up, but for Ashtyn Lively it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Ashtyn was accepted into the first-ever western Canada Camp Got-2-Go, which is a summer camp geared for children and teens living with crohn’s or colitis. Ashtyn was diagnosed with crohn’s disease when she was seven years old. Her condition makes it nearly impossible for her to attend sleepovers, let alone a summer camp experience. She’s 16 years old now and has been through hell and back fighting the disease, but she’s always managed to keep a smile on her face.
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“If I’m sitting in a hospital room waiting for surgery I’m still smiling. But, I don’t know, I think the hardest part is maybe the doctors don’t understand how much pain I’m in,” Ashtyn said. She said a issue with Crohn’s disease is that a lot of people don’t want to talk about it. “It’s a disease that has a stigma, it’s seen as a bathroom disease.” In fact, it’s a disease that can affect a person from head to toe, and varies case-by-case. In Ashtyn’s case it’s centred in the small intestine of the stomach. “When you get mouth ulcers, that’s what happens all the way down for her,” said Ashtyn’s mother, Cheryl Lively.
“It goes into states of remission and then flares. When Ashtyn has an active flare for a long time the ulcers scab over and they don’t heal properly in the small or large intestine.” When Ashtyn goes through a flareup she’s completely debilitated. “The pain has been described as chewing on broken glass,” Cheryl said. Ashtyn has had a few lifesaving surgeries over the years and has had “quite a bit” of her small intestine removed. Talking with Ashtyn, you would never know she’s dealing with such a traumatic condition. She carries herself in a cheerful manner, even when discussing the time she almost died after a hangnail became infected last March. For most people, it would be a non-issue.
Warning system may have failed in oil spill
Premier speaks up about national unity
Ron Bailey, Nexen’s senior vice-president of Canadian operations, said it is investigating what caused the pipeline to rupture and why the system failed. » Nation & World, A7
At meetings of Canada’s premiers, Christy Clark said the PQ had failed in past attempts to break up Canada and wouldn’t have any more success in the future. » Nation & World, A6
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