Tuktoyaktuk man recovering from cancer performs daring ice rescue

A Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., cancer survivor saved a woman whose snowmobile went through the ice in the hamlet's harbour last week.

RCMPsay the incident happened Friday in the harbour in front of the community'sNorthern Store, on the coast of the Arctic Ocean.The ice was weak, the detachment says, and collapsed underneath the machine.

PatrickKuptanawas walking near the store when he saw the woman in distress.

"I said, 'Oh my God. Oh my God.' And I started running as fast as I could," he said.

He ran inside the store.

"I started yelling 'I needsome rope and I need it right now,'"Kuptanatold WandaMcLeod, host ofCBC Radio'sNorthwind.

Holding the rope, his hands shaking, heran to the beach. By the time he arrived on the scene, others had gathered on the shore and he gave them the rope. But they couldn't throw the lifeline far enough for the victim to reach.

"So I just told them I would make a noose, I would put it around my body,"Kuptanasaid.

He went outto the woman, put the rope around her body, and told the people and theRCMPwho had arrived on shore to pull her to safety.

Kuptanaisrecovering from lymph nodecancer. Radiation treatment destroyed his salivary glands, meaning he can't swallow solid food.Earlier this year,the federal government stopped paying for his nutritional supplement, but reinstated funding after his family's second appeal of the decision.

"My body's not 100 per cent,"Kuptanasaid.

The woman was taken to the health centre with non-life threatening injuries. RCMP sayher snowmobile was later recovered.

It's the secondtimeKuptanahasperformed such a rescue in Tuktoyaktuk.

In 1998,a snowmobile carrying driverDarryl Gruben and his two-year-old brother went through ice 30 metres from the harbour shore. Patrick and his brother Roland Kuptanawere the first people at the scene and both also fell through the ice into the water. Patrick Kuptana was able to pull himself out,crawl towards the victims and grab his brother's hand.

Gruben, though fully submerged himself,managed to hold the child's head abovethe water until Roland Kuptana was able to grab the boy, and the Kuptana brotherspulledthe child to safety. Grubendisappeared under the surface and could not be saved.

The Governor General's medal for bravery was awarded to all three men in 1999.

Kuptana said Friday'sincident has shaken him. He saidpeople should talk to elders in the community before they head out on the ice because in many areas the waters aren't fully frozen.

"I just suggest to people to ask to make sure it is safe to go on there,"hesaid.