Surrey school teacher voices frustrations with B.C.’s health-care system

A 37-year-old Surrey school teacher battling brain cancer has resorted to raising funds online for medical costs while dealing with long wait times for treatment in the Canadian health-care system.

Iris Sharma was living a healthy and active lifestyle her entire life until December of last year, when she started to feel some frightening changes to her health.

“I started having head pressure. I was also losing my focus completely. And along with that, I had really bad sciatica pain caused by the herniated disc in my back,” Sharma told The Leader Spirit.

As the months went on, Sharma was unable to work. She suffered short-term memory loss and periodic seizures, but kept searching for answers.

Answers wouldn’t come until nearly nine months later, when the MRI she had been pleading for changed her life forever.

“Then I found out I have a brain tumour.”

According to Sharma, before learning about the mass that had been growing in her left temporal lobe for over five years, she was repeatedly told that her condition wasn’t anything serious, and it often was chalked up as anxiety.

“I also heard, ‘it was all in your head,’ which, ironically, it is,” Sharma laughed.

“I just felt betrayed by the system, and I felt medically gaslit, to be honest.”

Faced with dire circumstances and long wait times in B.C., Sharma, along with her parents, went to Mexico City to receive immediate treatment.

“I was waiting for a really long time to get the same opportunities in Canada,” she explained.

Since receiving a nerve blocker, Sharma’s health has taken a positive shift. She started a GoFundMe campaign that’s raised upward of $16,000.

“I can walk again. Previous to this, I was using a cane all the time, and I couldn’t stand up for more than two minutes because of the pain.”

While the future of her health brings more questions than answers, Sharma hopes her story can spark change.

“What if the medical system could meet my needs? Meet other people’s needs, I just wonder how many people are sitting at home waiting for the medical system to have an impact on their health.”

The Leader Spirit has reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment.