Her Brother Died from Testicular Cancer: His Family Asked Why

Greg Price was an engineer, pilot, and athlete who died of complications after testicular cancer surgery in 2012 in Canada. A review of his case found missed faxes, follow-ups, and botched data sharing, ultimately costing this vibrant 31-year-old Alberta man his life.

All of the missteps in his case took 407 days from his first diagnosis until he died.

His sister, Teri Price, is the executive producer of the 30-minute film Falling through the Cracks: Greg's Story, which was released in 2018. She is fighting to improve the Canadian healthcare system, which she says failed her brother and continues to fail to change.

The Max Mallory Foundation shares this episode of Don't Give Up on Testicular Cancer, in which Teri shares Greg's story and her family's efforts to improve the Canadian healthcare system. As they began working on the film, they established Greg's Wings. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Interview with Teri Price
• 28:14 Marker

Transcript

Don't Give Up on Testicular Cancer

Her Brother Died from Testicular Cancer, and His Family Asked Why

Season 5, Episode 1

Introduction 

[00:00:00] Welcome to Don't Give Up on Testicular Cancer, a podcast where testicular cancer survivors, caregivers, and others who have navigated the cancer journey share their stories. The podcast comes to you from the Max Mallory Foundation, a nonprofit family foundation focused on educating about testicular cancer in honor and in memory of Max Mallory, who died in 2016 at the young age of 22 from testicular cancer.  

[00:00:35] Had he survived, Max wanted to help young adults with cancer. This podcast helps meet that goal. Here now is your host, Joyce Lofstrom, Max's mom and a young adult cancer survivor. 

Joyce Lofstrom 

[00:00:55] With me today is Teri Price, and Teri is the executive producer of a 30-minute film titled Falling through the Cracks: Greg's Story, which was released in 2018.

[00:01:06] Her brother, Greg Price, an engineer, pilot, and athlete, died of complications after testicular cancer surgery in 2012 in Canada. A review of his case found missed faxes, follow-ups, and botched data sharing, ultimately costing this vibrant 31-year-old Alberta man his life. All the missteps in his case took 407 days from his first diagnosis until he died.

[00:01:34] Teri is fighting to improve the system, which she says failed her brother and continues to fail to change. 

So, Teri, thanks for being with me today. 

Teri Price

Thank you for the invitation. I'm excited about this conversation and excited to have the opportunity to learn more about what you're doing and chat a bit about what we're doing.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:01:53] Let's start, like I always do with this story, what happened with Greg, and anything you want to share. 

Teri Price

[00:02:00] My brother was a mechanical engineer. He loved a challenge. He had been healthy his whole life. He was still playing sports and helping coach at the time of his death.

[00:02:09] He also had his private pilot's license. So, the beginning of his journey is during one of his. You had to do a pilot's medical exam every five years. And at one of those appointments, there was a flagging of a thickening of the epididymis.

[00:02:29] They did some normal basic tests after that appointment that didn't come back with any red flags, and so they just left it a bit of the no news is good news approach. 

Then Greg had a rash on his foot about eight or nine months later, which triggered Greg to go back to the doctor and try and figure it out. Greg wasn't considered or wouldn't have been considered a member of this doctor's patient panel.

[00:03:00] Or, that doctor was officially Greg's family doctor.

But Greg had a good relationship with him, trusted him, and managed to get an appointment. So, he went back and saw the same physician again about this rash on his foot. The physician checked his notes and must have checked Greg's as well. He sent Greg a referral just down the hall to a general surgeon to do more investigation.

[00:03:25] The symptoms hadn't resolved at that point. And so yeah, that was about eight or nine months into Greg's journey in the healthcare system. That referral took a while. It was expected to be like the family physician thought it would be a couple of weeks. It ended up being more like three months.

[00:03:46] During that time, Greg started developing back pain and decided to go to a convenient walking clinic on his way to where he was commuting for work. So, they started investigating the back pain. Eventually, after some tests, he got a referral to a urologist, but there were delays in getting that appointment as well.

[00:04:11] I think in the end, there were three or four urologist referrals that were in the mix. Eventually, Greg got an appointment. And well, though most of this time, he was navigating all of this on his own. Greg, like I said, was somebody who was pretty intelligent and confident.

[00:04:29] He was 30 years old at the time. I fully believe that he wanted to know the plan before he shared what was going on with his family and friends. He shared this with my parents the night before the urology appointment, and they went with him to that appointment on a Monday morning.

[00:04:53] He had surgery on Wednesday and went into the emergency room because he was in a lot of pain and had swelling and a few symptoms that were concerning. He went into the emergency room but was sent home and ended up dying of a blood clot in my parent's home the next morning. 

The whole experience was really—well, for us, it was just that final week. After Greg died, we wanted to understand what had happened. At that point, we had little experience with the healthcare system and made many assumptions about how it worked. We assumed it would work, that we could trust it, that it was safe, and all the other things you want to believe about the healthcare system.

Joyce Lofstrom 

[00:05:39] What was the biggest challenge as you all went through this? I mean, it went on for more than a year.

Teri Price

As I mentioned, looking back in hindsight, there were all signs that Greg was struggling through some of this.

[00:05:51] He had a very high pain tolerance. But in the sort of last couple of months, like his birthday is at the beginning of April, and I remember on his [00:06:00] birthday, really recognizing how much pain he was in, but because he was an athlete and still, he would get up crazy early to go to the gym and stuff.

[00:06:09] I automatically assumed that his back pain was related to overdoing it at the gym. We had been asking him about appointments and trying to make sure that he was getting it checked out. He was trying to get appointments and those investigations done. There were significant gaps between when he was able to get some of the diagnostic tests done and when he got some other appointments to get the reports reviewed, share information, and find out what the next step was.

[00:06:40] There were all kinds of gaps for him in that whole journey. And so, but for a family, what the hardest for us was really, especially in the early days after Greg died, was trying to get some questions answered and to get an understanding of what happened. 

[00:07:00] The healthcare system's reaction to harm, in general, is quite defensive.

[00:07:05] And you got lots of them, the pat on the head kind of, it isn't very easy. You don't understand it. Don't worry. We're doing investigations, and we'll make the changes that need to be made to prevent this from happening again. But that wasn't really what we wanted at the time. We wanted to get a deeper understanding of what happened.

[00:07:24] Fortunately for us. We were probably introduced to it a few months after Greg died. It's an organization that's called the Health Quality Council of Alberta. So, they sort of monitor and gather data and experiences in the health care system in the quality and safety area of focus a realm in the sector, and that team ended up doing an investigation, which really for us was what we needed at the time.

[00:07:53] It's been incredibly impactful and important for our family, going through that investigation with the [00:08:00] team. We were invited into the room, and our input was respected. And they knew they needed to hear from us to understand the full context of what happened. It was from day one, at least for me personally, the initial interaction with that team. We knew right away that was where we wanted to focus our energy and spend our time with that team.

[00:08:22] It felt different from day one and was incredibly important. It has been the foundation of what we've done since the beginning, with that investigation and everything that comes after.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:08:37] Well, you're lucky to have a team like that that can make a huge difference.

[00:08:41] I know with what a couple of things you were saying, I, it seems like when someone, well, I'll say when Max died, everyone just disappeared. There was nobody there. Nobody would talk or come in, or it was just over, and I get it to [00:09:00] somewhat, so why they may do that? But for patients and their families, it's

[00:09:06] It's excruciating and incredible that our experiences are similar no matter where that is. It seems, at least, that the people I've talked to are just chasing information. I understand and agree, but I wanted to ask. This group that investigated Greg's case, [00:09:30] or they offered to, did that continue and lead you to the film? Is that how you got there?

Teri Price

[00:09:36] Yeah. So, the lead investigator or the person leading the team who did the investigation is a physician based here in Calgary, where I am. He's also on faculty at the Cummings School of Medicine, a medical school at the University of Calgary.

[00:09:56] After the report's release, it was probably a [00:10:00] couple of years later that Ward came to us. He wanted to share Greg's story when he was teaching medical students the importance of teamwork and patient safety. And we were excited about the idea and the potential to impact the next generation of doctors. We've felt from the beginning that there needs to be a bit of a shift in culture and thought that sharing Greg's story and having an open discussion might be one way to shift that culture.

[00:10:33] So we gave the go-ahead to Ward and wanted to contribute to that project in any way that we could. In the beginning, we thought it'd just be a series of little video clips that could be shared in the classroom.  However, when Ward reached out to his network, he was introduced to Andrew Wreggitt and Becky Shaw, who wrote the script for us.

[00:10:52] Andrew and Becky had worked a number of times with a director named Dean Bennett, who was the director of the Heartland TV show. That's on [00:11:00] CBC or our Canadian television network. It's a fairly popular sort of family show on Sunday evening.  And so, once we had Dean on board, we were able to recruit a professional cast and crew, which helped us pull off the quality of film that we ended up producing, the falling through the cracks film, which is, it's just a 30-minute dramatization of Greg's journey through the healthcare system.

[00:11:26]  On day one of shooting, some of the crew showed me some stills of what we had captured that day.  and I remember thinking there was a high potential for it to be used well beyond the medical school classroom.  hat has been our experience for the last seven years since we had the final version of the film.

[00:11:50] It's fully embedded into a few different medical schools here in Canada and some additional health profession programs. There are a few other nursing schools. There are a [00:12:00] few schools using it for interprofessional education, which we love because it's another opportunity to reinforce that message of teamwork that we think is critically important.

[00:12:10] The film has allowed us to amplify the messages we started with after the investigation. It's so much easier to be able to walk into a room or join a meeting, be able to hit play on the film and have the movie tell the story for us, and then be able to participate in the discussion after the film to both hear people's reactions and questions, but also to learn from them what they're excited about or frustrated with.

[00:12:39] That discussion after the film is important but also valuable for us.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:12:44] Well, when I watched the film, it was well done. You can tell that professionalism, acting experience, and writing tell the story.  And I think what you just said about it being embedded into some medical schools and different health education settings for professionals is what testicular cancer needs.

It needs that awareness from doctors about anybody caring for men who come in with it.  It's wonderful to reach that many people practicing and for the new generation coming up to treat (patients).  Kudos to your family and the team that did all that. You've been showing the film and said it's been seven years. I read you've shown the film 600 times in that period, which is amazing.

Teri Price

[00:13:35] We just had our last one for 2024, and I think it was the 680th screening.  And yeah, we've joined almost all those screenings. There was a handful because it was a series of screenings, and we joined the first number of them and would pop in when we were available. But besides that, besides that specific series of screenings, we've pretty much joined [00:14:00] every, every other time that the film has been shown.

[00:14:02] Again, it's partially because we want to be able to respond to questions here, but we also learn a lot from people.  t helps us stay up-to-date on what's happening in the system and be more confident because my dad and I get pulled into different committees and sorts of task forces and are asked to share our experiences and what we've learned.  t least for me, and I don't think Dad would disagree, but having conversations with people continuously is important, as well as contributing to those committee settings and stuff adequately.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:14:39] A couple of thoughts, too, of our conversation. I was going to comment on the back pain because Max had that, too.  And you think, oh, like with your brother, it was, he's an athlete. Max wasn't, but you know, who knows? You pulled something, lifting whatever, and you just ignored it.

[00:14:56] And I think that is a good thing to [00:15:00] emphasize for the doctors, but also for any men that watch this or their families, kind of a basic fact of life to have back pain, but so, what else goes along with it?

The other thing I thought too was just, and I experienced this with Max, was the challenge of getting the doctors to work together like a team because he did high-dose chemo. There were doctors, neurologists, and a whole other team. They didn't bring them in, and that's one thing I questioned when he died, was like, why, why?  Why didn't you?  His tumor was in his brain.

Teri Price

[00:15:40] It's just something that should be part of a solid foundation of the healthcare system and should be embedded in the culture. We need the sort of systems and incentives and all of those additional levers you can pull in the system to enable teamwork because sometimes, I think, it's just not seen as a valuable skill. In some professions, teamwork is held up to the same level as some of the other skills they're probably taught in medical school or any of the training.

[00:16:18] Sometimes it's also hard to work effectively as teams, especially when you're talking about teams that aren't co-located, the same clinic, or the same unit. For patients with a significant or complex diagnosis, we must enable the healthcare workforce to work effectively as teams if we want to prevent patients from falling through the cracks and for safe care. 

That's one of the reasons why access to information is one of our priorities in addition to teamwork. We fully believe that if you can't communicate or share information effectively across the patient's team.

[00:17:00] So from the patient perspective, who they're interacting with and who's on their team, it's a patient safety risk if they can't communicate and share information.  And you see that in the film, like even the information of the thickening of the epididymis, which was sitting in one electronic medical record of the physician that Greg went to because of his pilot's medical. The information about back pain was in a different electronic medical record because he went to the walk-in clinic on his way to work.

[00:17:28] If those two pieces of information were in the same place or accessible by the people trying to care for Greg, we've been told, and I fully believe it's true, that connection to testicular cancer would have been made earlier than it was.

They went through several different diagnostic tests and investigations on just back pain. It probably would have been different if they had known about the thickening of the epididymis, which is what was flagged in the EMR of that [00:18:00] very first appointment.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:18:01] Sharing data and interoperability among electronic health records is also a big issue in the U.S. It's not happening the way it needs to.  And yeah, you're right. It leaves out a lot of key information. What are the things that doctors need to know? And sometimes, as patients, you assume that it's there and it is not.

[00:18:23] We could have a whole five hours on that.  It's just such basic information. It's well, anyway. We're trying to work on it in the U.S., but I know your family is instrumental in just trying to help Greg, which was shown in the film, too.

[00:18:47] Can you talk about that kind of support within your family? It sounds like you have a great family, but it's just that support they provided to him.

Teri Price
Even though he didn't share exactly what was going on, especially the first 10 months or more, it was more like a year. There are five kids in my family.  I have an older brother, a younger brother, and a sister, in addition to Greg. We had a couple of nephews and a niece at the time. Now, we have five nephews and two nieces. And we're close and grew up in rural Alberta on the farm. Greg loved the rural community life.

[00:19:32] When he was coaching, it was coaching with my dad and brothers, the community baseball team. And so, like typical for all values, it was part of our life growing up, and we were lucky.

[00:19:51] Greg was super intelligent and would have been able to tap into really any resources he needed, which I think also is one of the [00:20:00] reasons why, very early on, we took on sort of the challenge of trying to advocate for change in the healthcare system because If Greg couldn't navigate his way through the system, I don't know how anybody navigates their way through the system.  He had so many strengths that could have helped him and should have helped him in the system.

[00:20:22] And he still fell through the cracks.  So, it is a very significant red flag. It's a reflection of the gaps in the system.  And some of those gaps are even bigger for other people. We need to have a system that can be dynamic and adaptive and recognizes how complex the system is.

[00:20:42] Our family, partially because of that problem-solving, rural farmer mentality. So, the family business is in agriculture and food.  Understanding some systems and how all the systems are in place to make sure [00:21:00] that food is safe is also very much embedded in our daily lives.

[00:21:05] My professional background is in disaster and emergency management. I worked in the sector after Greg died. It was shocking for a lot of our family to recognize that the safety culture is quite a bit behind other [00:21:21] industries than healthcare for a number of different reasons.  But you mentioned assumptions around access to information, who can see information and some of those things. We made a lot of assumptions about the healthcare system, and prior access to information is one of them.

[00:21:37] We fully assumed that information followed the patient around, and it doesn't. It's not necessarily consistent enough to be confident in it.  The safety culture and the safety systems in healthcare were another place where we fully assumed it would be at least as robust as the other industries we had exposure to.

[00:21:53] It's not, which was a bit shocking.  But I think it's also sort of that systems [00:22:00] mindset, that safety mindset that our family had brought into the conversation when we were talking about what we want to see in the future of the health care system. That has contributed to this path that we're on as well, 00:22:12] and what we've accomplished so far, the sharing of information is not there.

Joyce Lofstrom
You mentioned faxes as one of the things.  I know in the U.S., and just from my background in public relations for health I.T., they get lost. They're never delivered.  They're sent to the wrong person. Whatever mistake you want to think about, it can happen with the faxes.  And hopefully, that's a change that is happening in the U. S. as well as with what you're doing in Canada because it just doesn't work. I interviewed people while working full-time at this job, and things aren't very good.

[00:22:52] Like your title, Falling the Cracks, because nobody ever got the information.

Teri Price
There is so much around the assumption that it will just work. We may not be able to take a step back and ask, "Okay, are we setting ourselves up for success in the kind of care and systems we want to have in healthcare?"

[00:23:17]  And just the fax machine; there are just so many flaws with it. It's not as reliable as we need it to be. It's a one-way communication.  We know from having conversations with lots of people in clinics that still have to rely on the fax machine how much extra work they do because the fax exists. 

They end up calling ahead to confirm and doing all these extra things because they don't have an effective, reliable way to communicate and share information.  So, it is one of those things we could take a step back and think about. 

Okay, suppose we're trying to work effectively as teams [00:24:00] with patients and families.  Is that the best tool we could use or design to enable us to communicate and share information effectively?

[00:24:09] At best, faxing a referral letter is not what people would come up with now. And it's one of the things in the interoperability conversation as well. 

We recognize that it's not even that new, but it's not a technology issue. It's more the implementation and change management and the shift in culture and workflows that need to happen to get rid of the fax machine. We are looking for the opportunity to adopt better technology to help us [00:24:44] accomplish what we want and what many people get into healthcare to do and care for patients.

[00:24:52] I think the shift in mindset and culture is a big part of it because until people are willing to do it, it will be [00:25:00] very hard to implement.

Joyce Lofstrom
And it's another one of those basic things.

Teri Price

[00:25:04] Yeah, no, for sure. We started to understand some of the issues better, but it still doesn't change just because we get a better understanding of why there's the pushback in the dynamics. And sometimes, it's a lack of trust, the amount of change, and even the perception of change. 

[00:25:22] Or the mindset around change. That is a barrier as well. But, when we show the film, and there are members of the public in the audience, it's quite often people are just like, when did this happen?  They're still not using fax machines, are they? And it's like, yeah, they're still using fax machines.

[00:25:38] We've had multiple experiences as a family where, even after massive investments in the province in new technology and moving to an EMR implemented throughout the province, we still have to follow up.

I had a nephew who broke a bone, and the referral to the clinic [00:26:00] just went nowhere.

[00:26:01] Nobody knows what happened to it. But my brother knew he had to check and make sure he was calling. It was a teenage boy. It was his hip, so he needed to make sure. We were concerned. It would have long-term impacts on him as he grew.

[00:26:17] If it wasn't dealt with promptly, appropriately. So, anyway, it still happens all the time. Unfortunately, I wish we would stop hearing these stories.  But every time we show the film, people share their own experiences, both from the professional and the patient perspectives.

That's also one of the things I've realized in my life, [00:26:41] over the last number of years, how challenging and frustrating it is and how it causes so much burnout in the health workforce. They know that these gaps exist and either have to pretend that they don't or take extra effort or they've [00:27:00] tried a number of times to spark some change in it.

[00:27:04] It was stopped for some reason. They ran into some wall, and I can also imagine how frustrating it is for them.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:27:13] I know in the U.S. a couple of things. One is that I use the patient portal a lot in my records. They will say if you put a question in here, it might take two days for us to respond, so call us if it's urgent.  I've done both, but if you use it and have access to one, that's a good alternative. Still, that's a couple of big ifs.

[00:27:38] Not everybody is comfortable with technology and wants to use it.  But I noticed the other thing in the film, and I think it's true, especially with a cancer diagnosis, is to listen. Listen to the patient and what that person is asking or saying is going on, like the blood clot [00:28:00] scene in the ER with Greg, it was like, Oh, no, go home.

[00:28:05] You'll be fine. And it's that kind of dismissal. That happened a couple of times with Max, but it's happened to me too. 

[00:28:14] You have to keep going, you being a patient. And that's where advocacy, your family came in, our family with Max, or yourself.  I mean, you really, really have to stand up to what you're feeling or thinking. It's uncomfortable to do it.  It is, but it makes a difference if you do so.

Teri Price

Yeah, for sure. That is one of the reasons why, and again, it was something we didn't recognize as being super critical before. But we now know how critical it can be to have family {00:28:45], a loved one, or somebody else there. For many reasons, it's hard to speak up for yourself as a patient. But as a family member, asking the question a couple more times, asking for information, or just speaking up and [00:29:00] saying, this isn't normal for your loved one, can be incredibly important. We need to make sure that we include family members. When we talk about teamwork, we use a teamwork framework.

[00:29:14] We include patients and families as team members. When discussing how we create the conditions for effective teamwork, we have to consider how we include patients and families. And when I'm saying families, I mean whoever the patient wants to include their loved ones and caregivers, whichever terminology you want to use. 

The patient should be seen as somebody who's a valuable additional member of the team, not somebody who's sort of a burden or in the way or will take up extra time.

[00:29:46] There are many times when they're catching things or seeing a deterioration that nobody else on the team will notice.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:29:54] So what's next for you with the film or just showing it or version two or anything?

Teri Price

It's shocking to think about how fast the last seven years of using the film have gone.

[00:30:08] When we first started talking about our distribution plan for the film, I thought we'd do a few months where we would be directly involved in showing the film. Then, we would set other people up to host screenings of the movie, with the long-term plan being that you could watch it online. 

[00:30:26] We've never really moved past that first phase of being involved in the film, in every screening when the film is shown. And it's partially because we see the impact the film can have and think that the discussion after is important. It's important for learning, but the film can also be quite frustrating to watch.

[00:30:46] It can also be very triggering for some people. And so those emotions that can be hard and are a bit negative are not the impact we want the film to have. But that being said, we are also recognizing now that we [00:31:00] are a bottleneck for being able to see and access the film.

[00:31:04] We host monthly live streams open to the public. So, that's an opportunity for anybody, including the audience, to sign up and see the film. But we're trying to think through how we might be able to have audiences still watch the film and experience the same as what they do when they're having a live conversation with us.  

They would be able to navigate through some of it.  Because we've done so many screenings, we know the common themes and questions in different areas where people want to dive deeper into topics.

[00:31:42] We're starting to explore whether it's possible to set it up so that you can access it online and then dive into some of these themes and topics. We're trying to figure out exactly how to do that. 

We will probably focus on the first [00:32:00] audience of post-secondary institutions and have them host screenings with students. They are already trained in facilitation and can have those conversations with their students as part of a class.

[00:32:13] Then, we think that we'll continue to spread and open it up as we refine it because I'm sure there will be things we're not thinking of now that will be learned as we go through, and enabling people to watch it online. 

It'll be phased, so we'll set it up so people can hold film screenings. We are targeting post-secondary first, but we won't necessarily restrict it.  And then, eventually, the plan would be to have it so that people could navigate through, watch it, and navigate through some of the content. Hopefully, the plan is to make it interactive because that's another thing that is a bit of a gap in the approach. So far, we remember different things from the different conversations.

[00:32:58] Sometimes, they're recorded, but [00:33:00] not always. We haven't been capturing the conversations, so we can't do any real analysis of them. Having an online platform where people can choose what they want to explore further and share their reactions and questions might also enable us to learn more from audiences.

[00:33:21] We rely on the audience to speak up for themselves, and there are always quiet people.  If I were on the other side of the room or the screen, I would probably be one of the people who are quiet.  I'm just, that's my personality. And so, we're missing potential insight from people who aren't speaking up in the sessions, so we might also capture some of that from {00:33:44] people.

Then the other aspect is trying to figure out ways to capture people's stories effectively. I've always hesitated a bit about doing that because I want to be able to, [00:34:00] if we're asking somebody to share a story with us, I want to be very clear and transparent about what we will do with it, [00:34:09] and what the value of doing that is.  We know sometimes people want to share their stories. And I want to make sure that we're respecting and doing the best we can when people are taking that step of sharing stories with us. We can gain some insight and themes from the stories shared with us and use them in a way that could spark change.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:34:36] Well, that's great. It's ethically thought through, which is important because people don't always think that way, which is good on your part.  People want to watch it. With the setup, you will still be doing the monthly viewing. Can you give us a link to where they should sign up?

Teri Price

So, through our website, which is just gregswings. There's a link on the homepage to the next screening, but I think the link is just gregswings.ca/events. 

That'll have the links for all of that. And we will continue... it's going to take us a while before we're at the point where people can navigate and find the film independently online anyway. However, even beyond that, I wouldn't be surprised if we continued to do the monthly screenings, and we would still be excited [00:35:26] to join any session where people want to invite us in for a conversation because it is another opportunity for us to learn.

I hope this platform will allow us to spread the film and learn more. We're not eliminating the opportunity to host us with the film. It will be confirmed in the meantime and will be true in the long run.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:35:51] Okay. I didn't ask you about Greg's Wings. What goes on with that project?

Teri Price Greg's Wings Projects is the [00:36:00] name of the organization we created to honor Greg. It was the final trigger for us to decide. We were always figuring out how we wanted to honor Greg.

[00:36:11] The idea of the film and the desire to have control, own, and help contribute to that project was why we created the organization. So, it's a not-for-profit organization based here in, well, it's registered in Acme, the small town where we're from in Alberta. 

[00:36:33] It is just a not-for-profit organization that owns the film. We have themes we want to do in areas Greg was passionate about. And we try to follow his mantra with what we're doing. We go where the opportunity and the momentum pop up. 

Right now, it is these [00:37:00] conversations in health. We are trying to impact healthcare with our priorities within that healthcare bucket around that strong foundation of teamwork and access to information. The third one is really because we recognize that our experience with the Health Quality Council and the investigation is unique.

[00:37:24] We don't think it should be. So, the third one is about healing after harm. How do we learn when things go wrong? It focuses on that bucket and emphasizes how important it was for us, but it also tries to spread the message that it shouldn't be unique.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:37:45] So this is a full-time job for you. Is it a full-time job?

Teri Price

It is. I don't think I fully anticipated it would be at the outset, but it is, both sharing the film and some of the [00:38:00] additional committee work associated with it. I'm thinking about the strategy for the organization overall, especially going into next year (2025) with some of the following significant projects for Greg's Wings, which will be this platform and the sharing of the film.

[00:38:16 It's a full-time job. It's great. It's so many layers and details there, but that makes it. The quality of it, and what it is.

Joyce Lofstrom

So, my last question is, what song do you have to sing along when you hear it? We're going to just end with a smile.

Teri Price

I am an awful singer.

[00:38:37] I do not sing in public at all. And I probably know lots of lyrics to songs, but I'm awful at the artists and the titles. The only time I would ever actually sing is by myself in the car. Right now, it's probably mostly Christmas music, the classic Christmas music, and [00:39:00] those lyrics. But, yeah, I'm not somebody who stands up and does karaoke or has a top 10 list that I can rattle off of my favorite songs, even though I do enjoy music.

[00:39:13] I have a lot of respect for the very skilled people, and it's just not the titles and lyrics. For some reason, it's not something that I retain well.

Joyce Lofstrom

I get that. That's okay. I can't sing either. I rarely sing anywhere but in the car.

Teri Price

But yeah, I get it. Yeah. In the car.

[00:39:35] On the tractor lawnmower, when I think that nobody else can hear me.

Joyce Lofstrom

Well, that's good. Christmas, I've been playing. We have one radio station here that I turn on. It's all Christmas. So, you know, it's fun. It's that time of year. I like the instrumental more sometimes than the voice.

Teri Price

[00:39:52] Me too, when I'm working. Yeah, so I don't know why, as I said, I don't know all the lyrics, but apparently, the lyrics distract me entirely from [00:40:00] working. I can't have them. But, anyway,

Joyce Lofstrom
 
Gregorian chant is good, too. I've turned that on a lot. 

Well, thanks for coming. All this time and insight, Teri, it's been great. And you could come back down the road when you've made some updates or what you talked about. [00:40:18] It'd be great to talk again in a year or something,

Teri Price

Yeah, for sure. As we run through some of this development and because of the other things with this platform. We have our thoughts around some of these themes, but the content and diving deeper into these themes. We are not experts in a whole bunch of this stuff.

[00:40:38] So we will rely on other people to fill in the blanks on specific topics, and having real experiences is so valuable for people. And so being able to link into the work that you've done and all the experiences that people have shared with you around their testicular cancer diagnosis and journeys and all of that could be something [00:41:00] that would be valuable to point to as well as we're going through this.

[00:41:03] That's the idea I have in my head right now. Curating some of the content, not necessarily creating all of it. There is a lot out there that is good, but sometimes it can be hard to find, or now, you're overwhelmed. We can point to some experiences, experts, and people working on exciting things.

[00:41:26] That's the other angle we try to be careful with. We don't want to be us versus them in the system. We want it to contribute together, and we don't want to rant and complain about the system. We also want to be pointing to the things that are working. So anytime that happens, And, we have that spread. That spread and scale is something that healthcare and [00:41:48] and often, Canada gets referenced internally as the country of pilot projects where we have good innovations that pop up but don't spread across the country.

[00:42:00] There are reasons why, but when we can point to things and hopefully get people to learn from each other positively.

[00:42:07] That we want to be able to do that too. So yeah, I'm staying in touch to check back in, and do not hesitate to reach out.

Joyce Lofstrom

[00:42:14] It'll be sooner than a year. No, you're doing great things, and I'm just glad you could share all that with us. So thanks.

Teri Price
Yeah. No, thank you.

Closing

[00:42:27] Thank you for listening to this episode of Don't Give Up on Testicular Cancer.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to our program on your favorite podcast directory. You can also visit the Max Mallory Foundation at [00:43:00] www.maxmalloryfoundation.com/podcast to listen to previous podcast episodes or donate to the Foundation.

[00:43:07] And join us again next time for another episode of Don't Give Up on Testicular Cancer.