An Alberta maverick who preferred to take his own path through life has donated $1 million to alternative health research at the University of Lethbridge.
Tom Droog’s wife, Emmy, was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 and died in 2010.
Watching her through that time was when Droog decided to explore new approaches to the care and treatment of cancer patients.
As Emmy’s cancer progressed, the couple worked together investigating various options to improve her quality of life.
“Most of the time when people hear the word ‘cancer,’ they hear nothing else,” he said in an interview from his home in DeWinton, Alta.
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“When people get cancer, they are just plain scared and it is hard on the family.”
He wants the university to work with other institutions to educate patients and their families about options.
Droog, who was presented with an honourary doctorate by the University of Lethbridge in 2006, turned the donation over to the university’s faculty of health sciences for the Emmy Droog Chair in Complementary and Alternative Health Care endowment.
It is the faculty’s first endowed professorship. Research will explore alternative medicine for chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Research could also explore comfort care.
“I hope they are going to open the box,” he said. “There’s got to be a better way.”
Complementary care is often geared toward health maintenance and health promotion, said Ruth Grant Kalischuk, associate dean of nursing at the U of L, which offers degrees in nursing, addictions and public health.
Options include vitamin therapy, herbs, yoga, chiropractic, massage, meditation, prayer, acupuncture, homeopathy or mind-body appro-aches.
The university has a three-year plan to hire a person with expertise in complementary and alternative health care.
“It will enable us to take some common practices and bring the science to that and also support practitioners who are deciding to augment their practice with complementary therapies,” Kalischuk said.
“The proportion of people living with chronic disease is escalating with the increasing baby boomer population. Very often people are getting relief by using the complementary therapies.”
Droog emigrated from the Netherlands in 1972 with $125 to his name.
“All I had was my name and my two hands,” he said.
When he arrived, a farm labourer was paid $1 an hour, while oil rigs paid $4.50 an hour.
He chose agriculture because he loved farming and marketing.
“I wanted to have options.”
With help from bankers and the Alberta government, he and his wife created Alberta Sunflower Seeds, Ltd., which grew into the multimillion-dollar confectionary company Spitz Sunflower Seeds of Bow Island, Alta.
He sold the company to PepsiCo in 2008 and wanted to give something back to his adopted community.
