UPDATE: HuffPost Canada spoke to Teri Price, Greg's sister and the executive director of Greg's Wings Projects, about the film's impact on the public.
"We have heard that knowing Greg's story has raised awareness on the importance of advocating for yourself or for your family and friends when we interact with the health-care system," she wrote in an email. "People have shared their own stories about how knowing Greg's story has caused them to follow up or speak up for themselves or their loved ones. Sharing Greg's story has successfully prevented people from falling through the cracks."
Teri stressed that people shouldn't "assume everything will fall into place" when it comes to health care.
"We make a lot of assumptions about the system and we have had a lot of conversations with people who end up shocked when they learn about how the system functions (or doesn't)," she continued. "One common assumption is that information flows through the system to the people who need it. This isn't true and there are a lot of barriers to this."
To continue the conversation about Canada's health-care system, Greg's Wings launched an online community called The Co-Pilot Collective where people can share personal experiences, questions and ideas.
Original story:
Greg Price, a 31-year-old engineer from Acme, Alta., was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2012. Due, in part, to delays in testing and treatment, his illness β which is considered to be one of the most treatable cancers when caught early β escalated in just a few short weeks.
Three days after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous testicle, Price died of a blood clot.
Now, six years later, Price's story is the subject of a Canadian film called "Falling Through The Cracks: Greg's Story," which aims to shine a light on the shortcomings of Alberta's health-care system.
"Before Greg's journey, we kind of assumed that while a health system has warts, it would be there for you when you really need it," Price's father, Dave, said, according to the University of Calgary. "I think that's a universal assumption, and that can be dangerous, and even fatal."
Following Price's death, his family turned to the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) β an organization that monitors the provincial health-care system β for answers. What they found was a lack of communication between providers and Price, as well as a lack of prioritization, CBC News reports.
Specifically, HQCA found that it took too long to book specialist appointments, Price did not receive follow-up care after a CT scan, and he was unable to reach a surgeon when he experienced leg swelling ahead of his surgery, according to CBC.
Price's family is now adamant about using his story to improve the health-care system for all Canadians. In addition to providing funding for the film, they have also started the non-profit organization, Greg's Wings Projects, in his honour to encourage the public to continue the conversation about health care.
"We're sensitive to the fact that [the film] has the potential to be pretty emotional," Dave, Price's father, told the Calgary Herald. "What we want to make sure is that people come out of it with some hope and some plans to move forward positively rather than with frustration or disappointment and going out on the dark side and not being able to learn from it as much as we'd like."
"We don't want it to go sour, we want it to be a positive influence on supporting people who want to make improvements."
"Falling Through the Cracks: Greg's Story" is currently being used as an educational tool for first-year medical students at University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) and it made its public debut at Calgary's Plaza Theatre last month.
Greg's Wings is hosting public screenings of the film to bring awareness to Canada's health-care system. In addition to Calgary, the film has screened in Vancouver and St. John's, N.L.
The film's next stop will be in Ottawa on June 17. Following the screening at Ottawa Little Theatre, there will be a panel discussion on the future of health care.
HuffPost Canada has reached out to Greg's Wings Projects for comment on the film's impact thus far.
Twitter is already buzzing about the film, with many Canadians thanking the Price family for using Greg's story as a catalyst for change.
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