here is a letter i have been sending to agencies regarding my current struggle. some might say i'm looking for a handout, for free. no, i'm not really. i feel i was burdened with the hep c virus because of government and medical laziness and a lack of education. the drug interferon costs pennies to make and distribute, yet we who rely on it for our survival are expected to come up with one thousand dollars a month to receive it. for 48 weeks! how does an unemployed ex-fitness (taiji and qigong) instrctor come up with that kind of cash?

"Dear Sirs or Madam,

I am writing this letter not so much for myself and my situation, but it is my hope to receive advice and perhaps some education for myself and those who may be interested in how one finds themselves in a life or death struggle with the powers that be, through the trials and tribulations of life.

I have been informed by my doctors that I must receive Interferon treatments to save my life from the devastating effects of the hepatitis C virus that I received from a blood transfusion when I was two years old. I was stricken with pernicious anemia at that time and was saved because six people donated their blood to keep me alive. One of them had hepatitis C and pa*sed it to me. This is the most likely scenario, I am told, because I have never, in my life, used intravenous needles for any reason whatsoever. Either that, or as a doctor confessed to me, a common practice in the fifties -when polio vaccinations were offered in schools- was to use the same needle for many children. It is easy to imagine how one child with the virus would pa*s it along to those who were inoculated afterwards with the same needle. Strange, isn't it, how the government will compensate native abuse issues and such, but when it comes to their 'own people,' it is a slightly different story. Quite revealing, one might say.

I have been told that I must receive forty eight weeks of this Interferon Treatment at a cost of up to one thousand dollars per month. Having been self employed for some time, yet unable to work since May of 2005, (when I was diagnosed with the virus) I am unable to come up with any of this cost. I do not believe that Social assistance is a reasonable choice for me, and I will not be pursuing that route. Although, I have been advised by certain parties; that this may be my only option.

Nor does it seem reasonable, fair or just that I should be forced to re-imburse the 'givers' of these treatments to save my life, as the newly instituted 'Pegatron' program suggests.

Isn't it slightly interesting, and quite revealing, how the statistics show that Hepatitis C has infected more people world wide now than Aids/HIV, yet there is virtually NO public education program from governments or medical practicioners available, not to mention a huge and embarrasing lack of support groups around? We that are infected are left to our own resources, to research after the fact, to find out how we could have gotten this burden dumped upon us, and what do we find? Looks like an industry in the making, to me.

I feel that I am having my life held hostage by a predatory system that would prefer I die and vanish, or pay up, post haste.
I feel there is no recourse for me, at this point.

Recently, I heard news of a young man who suffers from dwarfism. A non-life threatening condition. Yet, the Medical Services Plan of British Columbia awarded him with four hundred thousand dollars to pay for operations that would alleviate his condition.

Surely, there is someone, somewhere that can see the injustice here.
So, here I stand with my back to a wall, asking for advice and perhaps foolishly, compassion. The question I ask myself Is; 'Am I willing to die to make a statement of protest?' Seeing and feeling I have little say in the matter; I must answer 'Yes.'
What you might ask yourself is, 'Am I willing to receive the repercussions of that statement?'

Yours most Sincerely.

Wayne Wilson
ps. my personal records may be accessed through St Michael's Hospital Toronto Ontario. Born Feb 25th 1949
thank you."