Cancer patient sells cookbooks for palliative care

A woman who is at the end of her fight with breast cancer is selling copies of a family cookbook to raise money and awareness for palliative care.

Jessie McCrady, who was diagnosed with fourth-stage terminal breast cancer last August,has been apatient at the palliative care unit at the Prince Edward Home in Charlottetown for a few weeks.

McCrady said the unit has been a pleasant surprise, that it is a surprisingly positive, uplifting space.

'We don't have a goal. But we sure as heck like lots of money.' Jessie McCrady

"They do all kinds of things to make you comfortable, and that's their main goal is your quality of life," said McCrady.

"And I think a lot of people aren't aware that that's what this place is about."

When McCrady asked palliative care consultant, Dr. Mirielle LeCours, if she liked rhubarb, LeCours said yes, and asked for one of McCrady'sown recipes.

"So, therefore, she brought in the cookbook and that is how this whole thing started," said LeCours.

Big boost

With the help of a Facebook pageCookbooks for PE Home Palliative Care Unitand some friends,McCrady has already sold almost 200 cookbooks in one week and 300 more have been ordered.

"It took off on us so fast it kind of got ahead of us," says McCrady.

"We don't have a goal, I don't think, but we sure as heck like lots of money."

McCrady's friend Valerie Paton, who set up the Facebook page, says, "Jessie is a very dear friend of mine. She's always doing things for other people and never thinking about herself and even here in palliative care, here she is, thinking about raising money for palliative care."

The book is called Granny's Secrets: Favourite Recipes from McCrady's Shore Acres. It was originally written by McCrady's mother-in-law, Cassie McCrady, who operated the popular country restaurant in the book's title that closed in the 1990s.

McCrady said the activity has given her outlook a big boost.

"Now, today, I'm thinking I could be around for two years yet," she said.

Along with supporters, McCrady is planning a selling event for the cookbooks soon.

Organizers ask people interested in purchasing a cookbook, making a donation or sending McCrady good wishes visit the Facebook page and not contact or visit the Prince Edward Home.