Local theatre and music communities are holding a fundraiser to help Debbie Patterson pay for surgery to ease MS symptoms.
Winnipeg playwright/actress Debbie Patterson will fly to Costa Rica next month to receive the controversial liberation
treatment for multiple sclerosis.
Patterson, a prominent member of the local theatre community, has suffered from MS for 12 years but more recently, numbness and loss of
strength in one leg has forced her to walk with a cane. The accompanying
fatigue is also becoming more debilitating, compelling her to ration
trips up and down stairs in the Wolseley home she shares with her
actor/director husband Arne MacPherson and their two children.
The 44-year-old Patterson and her 17-year-old daughter Gislina will travel to the Costa Rican capital of San José, where doctors at Hospital
Clinica Biblica will open veins in her neck and chest to relieve the
worsening effects of MS. The operation and two-week convalescence costs
$15,000.
A "Pimp My Gimp" benefit for Patterson is set for 8 p.m. Jan. 7 at the West End Cultural Centre, where members of the theatre and music
scenes will perform, including Graham Ashmore and Rob Patterson of the
former, and John K. Samson and Christine Fellows of the latter. Tickets
are $25 through the Prairie Theatre Exchange box office (942-5483),
website or at the door.
"Part of the reason I wanted to do this fundraiser is because so many people wanted to help and this would make it easy for people to do it
and make my recovery a community event," says Patterson, who was chosen
as the theatre arts ambassador as part of Winnipeg being Canada's
cultural capital in 2010.
She was riveted by the accounts of Winnipeggers such as MS sufferer Duncan Thornton, who travelled last spring to Poland, where doctors
placed a stent in one vein and a balloon angioplasty in another. He felt
immediate relief, raising hope in Canada, which boasts one of the
highest rates of MS in the world.
"As soon as I heard about it I wanted to do it," says Patterson. "I'm getting worse and I'm getting worse faster. It wasn't much of a
decision to make. It's a no-brainer, but I'm scared."
It galls her that as a citizen of a prosperous country like Canada, she is forced to depend on the medical system of a small Central
American country for life-improving treatment. Patterson has been
impatient with the wait-and-see position of governments, although
Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald has called for a countrywide
clinical trial to test the effectiveness of the liberation procedure.
"It kind of ticks me off when I hear different politicians speak on this issue," says the founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins. "They
say, 'We can't approve this treatment until we are satisfied it's safe
and effective.' I feel they are asking the wrong question. The question
they need to ask is whether it is safe and ethical to withhold this
treatment given the nature of MS."
She opted for Costa Rica over Poland owing to the shorter waiting list and the required two-week recovery period. Other options could see
her flying home two days after the operation, something she didn't want
to experience.
Patterson used to be a regular performer on Winnipeg stages but that has been halted by her MS. For her 2009 fringe production Molotov Circus, she wrote herself a role in a wheelchair. Otherwise she has focused on her writing, which has ranged from Head, a SIR musical about Anne Boleyn, to numerous adaptations of Robert
Munsch stories for PTE, where she currently serves as artistic
associate.
These days she can be seen wheeling around Portage Place on a kid's push scooter.
"I have one really weak leg but with a scooter I can keep up with people," she says. "I've trained mall cops to put up with me. I
explained that it's my mobility aid and not a toy."
Patterson is feeling very upbeat about soon getting relief from MS -- which has left her too weak to carry her meals to the table -- but even
more by the outpouring of public support that left her momentarily too
choked up to speak.
"I'm feeling blessed these days," she says. "I hope the operation at least stops the progression. If I'm like this for the rest of my life, I
think I can handle it."
kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/entertainment/arts/playwright-calls-ms-treatment-no-brainer-112467494.html