2023-09-07 22:00:00
A family man grappling with colon cancer, and who is given no more than a few months to live, will soon be leaving what may turn out to be his last chance, a treatment offered in Japan.
“What touches me the most are my children and my girlfriend. I have the feeling of leaving them behind me, ”breathed this week on the phone Christian Beaulieu, visibly weakened by the disease.
In March 2021, just three weeks following the birth of his second child, little Laurier, the now 39-year-old man greeted with horror the verdict he so feared.
After more than two years of living with symptoms, he was told he had colon cancer.
“We blamed it on my anxiety, or irritable bowel. But it always got worse. I was told that at my age, it mightn’t be cancer, ”laments the resident of the Montcalm district, in Quebec, who is angry with the specialists who did not sound the alarm earlier.
“It’s shocking,” he continued. But you have to learn to live with it. I can’t go back to the past.”
He also wants to warn anyone who feels physical abnormalities and does not feel well guided not to be afraid to take matters into their own hands.
“It may be worth going private, for $500, and getting the facts straight. I regret not having done this by myself,” admitted Mr. Beaulieu.
Nothing goes
When the ax fell, experts told him he would live a few years at most, if he was lucky.
Mr. Beaulieu and his family when the disease had not yet affected his physical appearance. Courtesy of Christian Beaulieu
“But there, the treatments don’t work anymore,” he said. I also have magané liver, which narrows the options for me here. My liver might not metabolize chemo.”
“I’m not given high hopes. I was given 3 to 6 months to live, three weeks ago,” explained the man who has lost regarding 80 pounds since the onset of the disease.
However, even if he sometimes speaks in the past in spite of himself, Christian Beaulieu tries as best he can to preserve hope.
Projects
He contacted a Briton, also a father and suffering from the same cancer, who was successfully treated in Japan.
“For him, CAR-T Therapy worked really well. The treatment is given in Quebec, but it is not authorized for my type of cancer. And there, it is allowed.”
So the construction entrepreneur, cycling and Formula 1 lover, sees this opportunity in a way as his last chance not to leave his little family, and to fight until the end.
“I hope it works, but I remain realistic. I know that they are going to be well surrounded, ”he confided regarding his spouse and his children, foreseeing all the same the worst.
“What I liked the most was having projects with my girlfriend. We wanted to buy buildings, and do renovations, blew Christian Beaulieu. They were great projects.”
“My 5-year-old daughter, Margot, is understanding more and more. We tell him that dad may be in heaven soon, ”he flinched, his throat knotted.
“That he will always be in his heart, even if he is no longer there physically”, ended the father, in tears.
To carry out this project, his long-time friend Thomas Casault set up a crowdfunding campaign that has already exceeded the estimated $105,000 needed for treatment and travel, and this following only a few days.
“He called me this morning to tell me he was leaving on 9/11. Tickets are purchased. It had been a long time since I had heard him so happy. I think it will do him good to show his children that he has gone to the end of what he might do, ”told the Journal Mr. Casault, Thursday followingnoon.
“It is a relief. We are really moved by the gesture of generosity of the people, who in just 35 hours, raised this large amount, added Christian’s spouse, Émilie Girard-Tremblay. We leave the whole family with him, and we will stay with him there for a month, the time of the treatments. It’s been a roller coaster for two years. It’s been more intense for three weeks. We survive.”
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