As he attends a calendar-full of appointments, stretched over days, weeks and months of uncertainty, Carnarvon’s Curtis Barker does not have much control over what is happening to his body. He is dealing with a rare bile duct cancer, related complications, and liver disease.

But on this day, the sun is shining. He puts out the patio furniture. It’s exhausting but preferable to sitting around doing nothing.

Curtis said he stays sane by keeping as active as his body allows.

You may know Curtis; and you may have seen, or even contributed to, the April GoFundMe campaign for he and wife, Megan, and their two young children. They have raised just shy of $120,000 of an original $100,000 goal.

The main objective was to fund 10 cycles of a drug called Enhertu, a targeted cancer treatment for Curtis not covered by OHIP or private insurance. Each cycle costs $10,000

The family’s life changed in September 2024 with the stage four Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) diagnosis. Curtis stopped working. He underwent a Whipple surgery, and while Megan’s private insurance covers the essential daily medications required afterward, the road since then has been incredibly difficult.

Curtis has endured first-line chemotherapy and immunotherapy, followed by secondline chemotherapy, and radiation. Along the way, he has faced multiple hospitalizations, including pneumonia, a blood infection, influenza A, and colitis. The disease has progressed, spreading to his liver, lymph nodes, and spine. He is undergoing radiation for pain management, as even strong medications are no longer enough.

At Princess Margaret Hospital, testing revealed that Curtis’s tumor is HER2 3+ positive — opening the door to a promising drug called Enhertu.

He got his first dose April 20 at Peterborough Regional Health Centre, delivered through a port in his chest. He’ll get the drug every three weeks. Money raised through the GoFundMe is paying for at least 10 treatments.

Curtis says he’s had every side effect you can get from the drug – such as nausea, fatigue, and hair loss – but the two are hopeful as they’ve read Enhertu can be successful.

He and Megan cannot believe how much the community contributed to the campaign.

Curtis isn’t much of a talker. He is at a loss for words when it comes to expressing his feelings about family, friends, acquaintances and complete strangers donating to the cause. “I have no words really. It’s crazy all this money came in.”

Megan is more expressive. “Curtis is a guy who’s made a ton of connections.” He is from the Barker family (of Barker Heating and Cooling).

After three or four treatments, they’ll do more scans to see what impact the drug is having. Until then, it’s the waiting game, which isn’t easy for Curtis, who used to work 10 hours a day as a tradesman.

He said looking after his health “is pretty much a job” now. His other work is keeping busy.

“I just try to find stuff to do. You feel like you don’t want to do anything, but you need to.” The other day, when the walls were closing in, and he was feeling up to it, he took a drive to Minden. He has a lot of friends, who pop over to take his mind off things. It helps that Megan works from home. He has his daughters. Megan said the older one is aware dad is sick, but the other still too young.

Besides thanking the community for their generosity, Curtis also encouraged people to see their doctor if they think there is something going on. The couple had nothing but praise for their team of medical practitioners.

Only about 400 people are diagnosed with his type of cancer every year in Canada. Curtis asks, “how does this even happen? Why am I blessed? Why am I the guy? How come I can win this, but not the lottery?”

For now, plans are short-term. It’s living day-to-day. Walking outside, Curtis shows some fruit trees he has planted around the property. There is new growth; a sign of spring and renewal.

No matter how far gone someone may feel mentally, Minden-based psychotherapist Kelsey Sharpless believes there’s always a way back.

Since opening her practice in 2022, Sharpless has worked with approximately 250 people, helping them through their struggles to establish a new baseline for their mental health.

She has a fresh tool in her arsenal after recently launching eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. The method was pioneered in the late 1980s by U.S. psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro and has become a popular treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other ailments, Sharpless said.

“This is a very well-researched and validated therapy that helps people primarily recovery from trauma. The cool thing about EMDR is that it’s so different to other therapies,” she said. “It relies on a client’s brain’s natural ability to heal.”

The EMDR International Association say the process involves communication between the amygdala – the alarm signal in the brain for stressful events; the hippocampus, which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger; and the prefrontal cortex, which analyzes and controls behaviour and emotion.

It does not require patients talking in detail about the distressing issue, with Sharpless saying all she needs is a “headline”, such as car accident or traumatic incident, to get people thinking.

“They bring an image to mind and we work from there. Not having to talk about the incident can be really appealing to some people,” she said.

As the name suggests, the therapy is all about movement, specifically bilateral stimulation.

“So, going back and forth from the left to right side of your body… it doesn’t just need to be eye movements, it can also be things like tapping yourself left to right, using buzzers in your left and right hand or using sounds through headphones,” Sharpless said.

Before utilizing EMDR, Sharpless said it’s important to establish all stressors in someone’s life. As well as traumatic memories, that also includes phobias and negative opinions about themselves. These bring on stress responses such as fight, flight or freeze, which create feelings of overwhelm, being back in the moment, or feeling frozen in time.

“EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the response from the original event is resolved,” Sharpless said.

She started training in EMDR in January and has already worked with a “handful” of her existing clients. As well as PTSD and childhood trauma, she said the method is also effective for helping with anxiety, depression, chronic pain, eating disorders and addiction.

Sessions last one hour, though Sharpless said the number people will need to see improvement varies case-by-case. She noted EMDR is known to help people in fewer sessions compared to other therapies, though.

“Just because it’s very effective at getting right to the root of the issue,” Sharpless said.

Mental health week

May 4 to 10 is ‘Mental Health Week’ in Ontario and Sharpless believes it’s an important dedication given the rise in mental health crises since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m glad it’s at the forefront and is being talked about… there’s a lot of people who are struggling. There are a lot of people reaching out for more help now, which is a great thing.

“It’s important to continue the conversation… people do not need to feel shame for seeking out therapy. It’s something everybody could use. We have all had distressing things happen to us in our lives. Sometimes it’s helpful to talk about it,” Sharpless said.

For more information, visit emdrcanada. ca.

By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association (HHOA) began its annual stocking of the lakes throughout the County on Monday (May 4) with the help of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF).

Aerial fish stocking operations began early with a MNRF chopper conducting two runs to distribute thousands of fingerlings into remote local lakes. HHOA volunteers moved thousands of Haliburton gold lake trout, Manitou lake trout, and rainbow trout fingerlings from holding tanks at the fish hatchery during the process.

Following the helicopter drops, volunteers then used trailers and portable tanks to stock more accessible lakes throughout the County. HHOA president, Dan Smith, explained that this year’s restocking campaign aimed to distribute about 25,000 fingerlings across the region.

“We’ll just keep stocking fish until all the fingerlings are gone,” Smith said. “That’ll be it for our stocking of Haliburton County lakes for this season.”

Once the community stocking for public lakes is finished, the association will focus on its commercial inventory by moving the rainbow trout currently held in the facility’s pond to begin sales to private landowners and those with private bodies of water.

By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

For more than a century, Moorelands has helped thousands of children navigate the challenges of poverty, and the historic charity has set its sights on the “hidden pockets” of Haliburton County.

What began as a Toronto-based charity in 1912, serving low-income families, has since evolved into a youth-based leadership program. Since 1972, the organization has operated its flagship summer camp on the shores of Kawagama Lake in Dorset, and a new strategic plan is bridge-building across the corridor from Toronto to the County, to help ensure local families aren’t left behind.

“We recognize that poverty is on the move,” Colette Halferty, Moorelands Kids’ director of development and communications, told The Highlander. “There are isolated rural communities that aren’t getting served. We’ve really endeavoured to invest in more partnerships and outreach so we can reach families in need that aren’t necessarily from the GTA.”

Halferty explained that while the camp looks like any other classic Canadian summer retreat with archery, canoeing, and campfires, the fun is just the “icing on the cake.

“The curriculum is the foundational base of every activity and is the guiding principle for our staff mentors at camp to be able to make sure that our kids continue and they’re having fun,” she said.

The core of the Moorelands Kids camp leadership program is to equip the youth with the soft skills, emotional intelligence, resilience, and accountability that the school system often misses for children in highstress environments, Halferty said.

“It’s not like sitting in a classroom,” she said. “If you’re in a canoe, that’s teamwork. If you’re in a kayak, that’s individual leadership. We define leadership not by a paycheque or status, but by being a person of positive influence.”

Moorelands serves families on the Low-Income Cut-Off scale and helps to remove financial barriers through a subsidy program. Halferty explained that while it costs the charity about $1,780 to host one child for a week, covering transportation, food, lodging, and professional staffing, some families pay as little as $50 or $100 to send their child to camp for a week.

Putting the financial aspect aside, Moorelands helps address some of the specific hurdles faced by low-income youth. Halferty said frontline staff at the camp are certified in mental health training to support kids dealing with anxiety and depression. The camp also provides consistent, communal meals and has a 2-to-1 youth-tocounsellor ratio.

“Because we want to make sure that this journey and this experience for them is positive, that they can build up that sense of confidence themselves,” Halferty said. “They know that someone has their back.”

Last year, approximately 35 children from the County attended the camp. Through partnerships with the Haliburton County Development Corporation and the school board, Moorelands hopes to grow that number significantly.

“There is no cap on local kids,” Halferty said. “It’s first-come, first-served for families who meet the low-income criteria. We want more people to know this resource is accessible to them.”

As the charity looks to the future, it is seeking both families who could benefit from the program and local philanthropists interested in supporting the organization. Those interested in learning more about Moorelands Kids camp or applying for financial assistance can visit moorelands.ca.

The Kinmount community is still reeling following the recent loss of one of its greatest champions.

Longtime teacher and historian, Guy Scott, died April 15 at age 70. The son of Betty and Bill Scott, Guy was the fifth generation of Scotts in Kinmount, along with his sister, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott.

Laurie Scott told The Highlander during an April 27 interview that her brother had numerous health challenges over the past five years, but it was a recent sickness, that developed over about six weeks, that took him.

“Guy was Guy right until the end. I saw him about 12 hours before he passed, we had dinner together and he was still talking about his next project,” Laurie said. “He was still uncovering new things he didn’t know about the history of the area. He just loved that stuff. He never stopped, right up to his last day.”

Seven years her elder, Laurie said Guy was always a great influence during her childhood. They spent a lot of time together on a family farm on Crystal Lake Road. As a teen, he coached her baseball team and was always quick to teach her about the family’s rich history in the area.

As he got older, Guy’s ties to Kinmount only strengthened. He had a lifelong love affair with the Kinmount Fair, where he was a two-time president. He also served as the provincial president of the Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies. Laurie said Guy, who was known as ‘the spirit of Kinmount’, inherited his enthusiasm for the fair from their father, seeing it as the ultimate celebration of community.

He served as editor of the Kinmount Gazette for many years and volunteered his time with the Trent Lakes Historical Society, Kinmount Artisans Guild, Haliburton Highlands Genealogical Group and the Kinmount Masonic Lodge. Guy also spent 10 years as a municipal councillor in the old Galway-Cavendish township that later amalgamated into Trent Lakes.

Not content to simply talk history, Guy made every effort to record it too. He wrote several books, including The History of Kinmount: A Community on the Fringe, The Story of the Kinmount Fair, and Where Duty Leads: The 109th Battalion in WWI that detailed his grandfather’s experiences fighting in Europe.

Guy fought to preserve the community’s railway station, which now serves as a museum, and has helped shed light on Kinmount’s historic ties with Iceland. Through his research, Guy learned about a large group of new Canadians who arrived from Iceland in September 1874, to work on the Victoria railway line. The immigrants established Hayford, a ghost town along the Burnt River that Guy discovered and took many groups of Icelandic descendants to see after he wrote about it in his history of Kinmount.

Janice Stange, chair of the Trent Lakes Historical Society, said Guy’s death has been a shock to everyone.

“He was our enthusiastic go-to for any stories and information from the past. Even in these days of technology, he was our link to classic north country history,” Stange said. “We’ll never be able to say enough about his contributions to the area and its history. It’s a different world without him.”

Laurie said her brother was a family man at heart – devoted to his wife, Lori, and their children. He’ll also be remembered as a pioneer in digital education after serving for many years as a history and civics teacher with the Virtual Learning Centre.

It will be his many contributions to Kinmount that Guy will be most remembered for, Laurie said.

“He believed in this community – he used to say if you love the place you live enough, it becomes the centre of your universe. That describes how Guy felt about Kinmount,” Laurie said. “I’ll miss being able to pick up the phone and call him, because he usually had the answer to any question I had.”

A celebration of life will be held at the Kinmount Fairgrounds Arena May 9, with visitation from noon and ceremony at 1:30 p.m.