New wheelchairs roll into Ullivik

A photo of a Nunavik medical patient riding to his room in an airport luggage cart has inspired the donation of several wheelchairs to the Ullivik medical boarding lodge.

Jean-Guy St-Aubin, a grandfather from Kangiqsualujjuaq, frequently travels south for cancer treatment. Like many other Nunavik medical patients, he stays at Ullivik, which accommodates travelling patients and their escorts.

After a chemotherapy appointment in March, St-Aubin returned to Ullivik only to find out no wheelchairs were available to take him to his room.

Jean-Guy St-Aubin is seen here on March 1 when the wheelchair he was expecting to use at Ullivik was not available, so he rode to his room on a luggage cart. (File photo courtesy of Brenda St-Aubin)

Unable to walk, and wanting to go back to his room to rest, St-Aubin elected to ride a luggage cart.

Images from that day posted to social media by granddaughter Brenda St-Aubin sparked anger online.

Brenda and her sister Julia used the attention to launch a fundraiser to buy wheelchairs for the facility.

Two and a half months later, the St-Aubin granddaughters are in the process of closing the fundraiser after it raised $7,663, exceeding the initial $4,000 goal.

On Wednesday, Julia St-Aubin used the funds to purchase nine wheelchairs. This purchase also follows several other wheelchair donations, including 10 from Montreal wheelchair manufacturer Motion Composites.

“It has been very incredible to be a witness to this event, and very fun to see everyone at Ullivik benefiting, having enough wheelchairs at this building for the employees, for the patients, for the escorts,” Julia St-Aubin said in an interview.

“The actual thing that made this possible was the people that were kind enough and generous enough to donate their money for this cause and Motion Composites for donating.”

According to the St-Aubin GoFundMe page, some people pitched in hundreds of dollars, and one anonymous donor who gave $1,000.

Jean-Guy St-Aubin said he was proud of his granddaughters for their decision to launch the campaign and that it has forced institutional change at Ullivik.

Jean-Guy St-Aubin sits comfortably in his wheelchair outside of Ullivik. (Photo courtesy of Julia St-Aubin)

In a previous conversation with Nunatsiaq News, Jean-Guy said he has seen medical patients berate staff over the lack of wheelchairs – something he says he hopes won’t happen in the future.

“I think they have a good reserve for now, and I don’t think that they’ll let people go on a cargo cart,” he said.

“The employees of Ullivik, they have big smiles now because they’re not shy anymore to say, ‘We don’t have any more chairs,’ because some people really, really need a chair but there was no more. So, now they say, ‘Oh yes, we have one.’”

Julia said the wheelchairs she purchased will arrive sometime in the coming weeks.

For now, she’s thankful a situation that started out negative has had a positive outcome.

“This experience has been a powerful reminder that patients are not just numbers and they are people, and the employees are not just employees, they are human,” Julia said.

“This event has been a powerful reminder that we should be there for each other.”

Nunatsiaq News contacted the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services by email Wednesday with questions about the St-Aubin family’s fundraiser.

As of Thursday, the health board had not responded.