Saving Rhea Seegobin
January 30, 2026 at 10:47PMRhea Seegobin, who is in her early 30s, was working two jobs trying to pay down her debts. One day, she attempted to sit down on a stool, but fell backward instead. Seegobin was surprised by a cancer diagnosis after visiting a nearby emergency department to get checked out. As Wency Leung reports for The Local, a staggering 44 percent of Ontarians will develop cancer in their lifetime, a figure which translates into 7 million people. Seegobin’s case is just one example among millions of humans attempting a recovery that can bring an overwhelming financial burden, even in a country with socialized medicine.
When I first met Rhea, I wanted to understand the financial challenges that Torontonians with cancer are up against. Rhea was introduced to me through the Breast Cancer Support Fund, one of few charities that specifically focus on the financial burdens of cancer. She was a beneficiary of the charity, and had received a $2,000 cheque from them during a particularly lean period the previous year. That money allowed her to buy fresh food and take Ubers to her medical appointments without agonizing over whether she could justify the cost.
At the Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation, social worker Ilene Shiller, manager of workplace and financial programs, helps people navigate what she calls a “financial maze of resources.” But even with the different resources that are available to them, there isn’t always enough money for cancer patients to cover their monthly expenses and costs related to their treatment. In recent years, Shiller said she’s helped more people than ever who are facing evictions, have utility bills in arrears, or are otherwise falling behind. On rare occasions, she has encountered patients who are forced to work throughout their cancer treatment. More often, she sees patients incurring debts, using credit cards and lines of credit, tapping into their savings like RRSPs, refinancing their homes, and borrowing from friends and family.
The result, she said, is stress: “Huge, huge stress. I can’t tell you how many times we have people come in to an appointment that will say that the stress of the financial part of this diagnosis is worse than the diagnosis itself.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2026/01/30/saving-rhea-seegobin/
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