Canadian Blood Services launches most ambitious campaign to date
Canadian Blood Services hopes to bring in one million new donors over the next five years.
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Charleigh Pollock poses on a field trip with her classmates on June 13, 2025. Charleigh Pollock is a nine-year-old girl who suffers from Batten disease, a rare neurodegenerative disorder that leads to the progressive loss of brain function. Charliegh was diagnosed at the tender age of three after she began suffering from relentless seizures. She was put on a drug call Brineura, which slowed the progression of the disease and stopped the seizures – until the B.C. government informed her medical team in February that she would no longer be covered. 'The last five months have been agonizing,' said Jori Fales, Charleigh's mother. 'It's on our minds every night and every morning, all day long.' The drugs is expensive, Fales said, costing $844,000 per year. Charleigh's team appealed the province's decision and the health minister stepped in, extending the treatments while the appeal process was ongoing. Fales said she's recently been told a decision is coming soon. 'We will hear the final decision before the 19th of June,' she said. Charleigh's mother fears the worst if the appeal doesn't go in her daughter's favour. 'Brineura is the only defence against this horrible disease, so if you take it away she will decline, lose more skills and will leave us,' she said. The province's Expensive Drug For Rare Disease Committee has been tasked with making the decision if Charleigh's treatment will be funded going forward. During that appeal process the committee asked the Canada Drug Agency to do an evidence review for Brineura. The findings of that report is giving Charleigh's mother hope. 'It says, 'insufficient data to establish discontinued criteria,'' said Fales. 'Without the appropriate data to help inform stopping the drug, the discontinuation should truly be a clinical decision made with the health-care team and the families impacted with this disease.' Charleigh's medical team is in full support of the nine-year-old's continued Brineura treatment. June 19 – the same day the family has been told they will receive the province's decision – is also the next scheduled infusion treatment. If the decision doesn't go in Charleigh's favour, that will be her last treatment with the drug that her mother says is keeping her alive. 'Then we start preparing ourselves for the days ahead,' said Fales.
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Albertans to start paying for COVID-19 vaccines after province changes immunization program
Many Albertans will have to start paying for a COVID-19 vaccine this year. In a press release Friday, the Government of Alberta said it was reducing eligibility for publicly-funded immunizations for the virus. The province said just over 1 million COVID-19 vaccines were wasted in the 2023-24 respiratory virus season, equating to 54 per cent of Alberta's order that year. It said the decision was made in response to changes to the federal vaccine procurement process earlier this year, which made provinces responsible for buying their own vaccines. 'Now that Alberta's government is responsible for procuring vaccines, it's important to better determine how many vaccines are needed to support efforts to minimize waste and control costs,' release said. The new vaccine program will roll out in four phases. During the first, only residents in senior's supportive living and home care will be able to get a vaccine for free. The second phase will open provincially-funded COVID-19 vaccines to people with underlying medical conditions or compromised immune systems, people living in congregate living accommodations, people on social programs like AISH or income support or people experiencing homelessness. In the third and fourth phases, all other Albertans starting with those 65 years old or older will be able to purchase a vaccine. Sarah Hoffman, Alberta NDP shadow minister for health, released a statement calling the decision 'callous' and 'anti-science.' 'It's cruel for the UCP government to put further financial burdens on Albertans who want to protect their health and their loved ones and not get COVID,' Hoffman said in the release. 'If the UCP government was really interested in eliminating waste and protecting the health of Albertans it would be promoting vaccines. That way the supply would get used and we would keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.' The province did not give a timeline for the rollout of the new program and did not specify when Albertans would stop being able to get a free COVID-19 vaccine or booster. Anyone who would like a COVID-19 vaccine can pre-order one starting Aug. 11. The province said it doesn't know yet exactly how much a dose will cost but estimates it will be about $110. CTV News Edmonton has reached out to the health minister's office for more information.
