The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Helen Hunter has gone international with her campaign to expand care for Alzheimer's Disease patients in Northern Manitoba. The Creighton woman this week launched a Web site for her non-profit group, Mitkas-Hunter Hope Foundation Inc., the aim of which is to raise funds to build a 10-bed supportive care facility for people with the degenerative illness. "We saw this as a way to get international exposure of what we're doing, and anyone out there could maybe assist us with donations or by supplying useful information," said Hunter. The Web site, created by Hunter's husband, Chris, outlines the various fundraising efforts of the foundation. Visitors to the site will also have the chance to purchase foundation merchandise such as T-shirts. The site also outlines the emotional tale of how Hunter became motivated by this particular cause. Her father, Miros Mitkas, has suffered from Alzheimer's Disease for the past six years. As Hunter put it, the disease "has left this wonderful man a shadow of his former self, confined to a wheelchair and unable to perform even the most basic tasks." Mitkas had received care at the Personal Care Home in Flin Flon, but due to the nature of his form of dementia, staff eventually had to transport him more than 700 kilometres away to Selkirk for more specialized care. Since that decision in mid-2002, Hunter has dedicated much of her time working toward a supportive care facility for people like her father, to be built in the local area. "I can deal with his illness, but to take him more than 700 kilometres away from me, it's been hard for him and my whole family," she said. The Web site for the Mitkas-Hunter Hope Foundation Inc. may be accessed at: www3.sk.sympatico.ca/divr99 The Reminder will have more on Hunter's efforts next week.
