Bruce Phinney loved Christmas, helping friends out and volunteering his time in support of causes such as his beloved Acadia University.
So it’s in keeping with that spirit of generosity, particularly during this festive season, that his wife Gretchen and daughter Evan have organized a blood donor drive in his memory.
Bruce died on Christmas Day last year not long after undergoing a stem cell transplant to combat a rare type of blood cancer called myelofibrosis.
“They kill your whole immune system, they take it out and then they give you the stem cells,” Gretchen explained in a recent teleconference call from Halifax with Evan, who lives in Washington, D.C.
“And shortly after that - before the stem cells were able to replenish or grow - he ended up with an infection and then it went downhill from there. “
Rare blood cancer
Bruce was diagnosed with myelofibrosis the previous April after he started experiencing fatigue and leg cramps.
“He was a man who was hard to slow down and he just attributed it to age - he had just turned 60,” Gretchen said. “He was a busy guy, he ran a bunch of businesses. . . . It came on very quickly. There was a really astute pharmacist who said you really should go get some blood tests and then from there he was sent to hematology and they diagnosed it.”
Before the stem cell transplant, he had received more than 80 blood transfusions as part of his treatment on the oncology floor of the Victoria General Hospital.
As the anniversary of his death approached, Gretchen and Evan came up with the idea of collecting blood-donation pledges in his memory.
“It was very imperative for his health just because it gave him the energy to get out of bed in the morning rather than do anything else,” Evan said.
Eye-opening experience
It was the first time anyone in the family had needed transfusions and it was an eye-opening experience, Evan said. Sometimes her father had to wait hours after his transfusion appointment time because there was simply not enough blood to go around.
“One day there was almost a six-hour delay,” Gretchen recounted. “There was definitely a draw on the blood bank that day - I don’t know if it was an accident or a huge surgery - and it was very stressful when he didn’t get that.”
After Bruce died, the family started hearing from people they didn’t even know about how important he was in their lives.
“There’s so many people who said, oh he was my best friend and I just never knew that,” Gretchen said.. “It’s been, I don’t want to say easy, but that angle has helped motivate us to get people to donate blood.”
Love of Acadia
Although he was an active businessman - he owned several companies including Scotia Plastics - he always found time to contribute to his community, Evan said.
“Obviously his businesses were his work and his employment but also there was always a way he was looking to give back, either to his employees or to the community. He volunteered for so many things.”
He was particularly active in the Acadia community, as a member of the board of governors and the alumni association, and as a coach and organizer in the university’s swim program.
He graduated in 1981 with a bachelor of business administration.
“It is impossible to adequately articulate Bruce’s love for Acadia. He would move mountains for his alma mater,” the Acadia Alumni Association said on its Facebook page upon his death.
Christmas without Bruce
Many of his fellow alumni and other friends from Canada and abroad have joined in supporting Gretchen and Evan in their blood donor drive as part of Canadian Blood Service’s Partners for Life campaign. They initially set a goal of recruiting 80 donors - to match the number of blood donations Bruce received - but as of Thursday morning, there were 154 under their campaign with the social media hashtag #INME279132.
People can sign up as a blood donor or as a stem cell donor on the blood.ca website. Evan noted that if you can't donate for medical or other reasons, you can always make a monetary donation or support a friend or relative who gives blood.
In a news release, Canadian Blood Services said more than 500 donors in Nova Scotia are needed to help fill open appointments by Dec. 31.
Although Gretchen and Evan have had some difficult days in the past year - particularly as the Christmas Day anniversary of Bruce’s death approaches - they’re planning on the kind of festive Christmas Day celebration that he so enjoyed.
Evan, who works as an events and sponsorship specialist with the Washington International Horse Show, will be home for a self-isolating Christmas break. She and her mom will be joined by the son of Bruce’s best friend (who is from Bermuda and can’t get home because of COVID restrictions) and other family members.
“He loved cooking and he loved Christmas dinner. He wouldn’t want us to just sit around and not do anything,” Evan said.
