EDMONTON/GJOA HAVEN
For three years the Takkiruq-Ikkutisluk family has spent months apart, and they've had enough.

Back in 2012, the Takkiruq-Ikkutisluk family spent their first of two Christmases apart when Bradley Jr. was hospitalized for months in an Edmonton pediatric intensive care unit. - photo courtesy of Bradley Ikkutisluk

Bradley Ikkutisluk, Leslie Takkiruq and their four children have faced far more than the average hardships on a daily basis - but the worst has been the separations by thousands of miles.

They hope, now, to raise enough funds through an online GoFundMe campaign so that they can all live together in an apartment in Edmonton

Ikkutisluk spoke to Nunavut News/North from the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton where he'd just begun chemotherapy for leukemia, a cancer of the blood stem cells in the bone marrow.

He explained that serious illness has assailed the family. First, five-year-old Bradley Jr. became ill in 2012. The young boy had to be kept an Edmonton hospital, in the pediatric intensive care unit. Ikkutisluk missed out on Christmas with his girls, Heather and Brittney, now seven and six. The same sad circumstance repeated the following Christmas. Bradley Jr. was released in January 2014.

Baby Donald, now one, has also been plagued by the same respiratory illness as his brother and spent three months in the summer of 2014 in hospital. Then, one day in October 2014, as his son was about to be discharged and the family was set to head home, Ikkutisluk woke up with a sore back. He went down to emergency, and after a long wait was diagnosed with the leukemia for which he is now being treated.

Ikkutisluk's cancer treatments means he has to stay in Edmonton at least until September, he says. His sons need check-ups there every six months. Takkiruq is with him, yet his daughters remain in Gjoa Haven.

"I finally just got frustrated," he said.

The territorial government provides medical travel and some compassionate travel for a few days or a week, said Ikkutisluk. However, even if travel for the girls was paid they cannot stay at the Larga House, where many Nunavut patients and a companion stay for short time periods.

One day, Ikkutisluk saw a sign in the hall of the Cross Cancer Institute about the GoFundMe site, which is a site many people with medical emergencies who need financial help use successfully.

As of April 15, the seven-day-old fundraising effort had raised $5,305 thanks to 130 people donating from across Canada.

"That's enough to fly the kids here, and pay a security deposit," said Ikkutisluk. "We'll get through it. A lot of people have helped - from Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick."

He's especially grateful for the help from his home territory. A nurse in Yellowknife, who cared for one of his children, donated $1,000.

"It is helping," he said. "I'm thankful."

Also on April 15, Bradley Jr. was travelling back home. He and his parents were very sad. Takkiruq said they had not yet chosen a date to reunite the family, finally, in an Edmonton apartment.

"My last couple months, at first it was hard but to this day I'm doing good," Takkiruq said, adding it's hard to be away from her children but she also needs to be with Ikkutisluk. Both parents say the children are being well taken care of back home, by Ikkutisluk's parents. But the bottom line is this young family needs to be together.

"I started chemo last week, I'm doing good - just dealing with the side effects," he said.

As for Takkiruq, she's staying strong. And she's grateful for the donations.

Ikkutisluk's doctors will let him know in September if he has to remain another six months.

The online fundraising campaign continues, and the two have faith they will manage.

Nunavut News/North asked the Department of Health how many Nunavummiut must receive cancer treatment outside the territory, in order to offer readers a broader perspective on how families are affected.

The department declined to participate in this story.

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