At 20, Evan Rees never expected cancer to be part of his story.
“I still haven’t wrapped my head around the fact I had cancer,” says Rees, an athletic therapy student. His health challenges started in early 2023 with persistent back pain and frequent bouts of pneumonia. After a CT scan showed a tumour in his left lung, he was transferred to Health Sciences Centre for further investigation.
Rees underwent a biopsy and an endobronchial ultrasound bronchoscopy at the HSC Foundation donor-funded Wilf Taillieu Thoracic Surgery Clinic and Endoscopy Unit.
In February, thoracic surgeon Dr. Larry Tan informed Rees that he had a rare cancer. The tumour was on his bronchus, an airway that leads from the trachea to a lung. No air was passing through, which explains the frequent pneumonia and back pain. The good news was that the cancer hadn’t spread.
Following three rounds of chemotherapy, Rees underwent surgery in June with Dr. Tan who removed the lower lobe of Rees’s left lung and re-attached the upper part of the lung to the airway.
“The staff at HSC was amazing, especially the nurses in the surgical step-down unit,” says Rees, reflecting on his 12-day hospital stay. “Everyone at HSC cared about my treatment and I had a really good sense all along that everyone was working as a team.”
By August, Rees received the best news possible: He was cancer-free.
Though still attending follow-up appointments, Rees is stronger every day and is back to lifting weights and playing beer league hockey. His advice to other young adults: “Listen to your docs. And if you have to go to HSC, they will take amazing care of you.”
To support thoracic patients at HSC like Evan Rees, please donate to the Advancing Thoracic Surgical Care Fund at hscfoundation.mb.ca/donate, or call the HSC Foundation office at 204-515-5612 or 1-800-679-8493 (toll-free).