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GoFundMe started for Tweedsmuir teacher

Money raised to go towards whopping medical bills
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A GoFundMe has been set up for a local teacher in need of a series of surgeries. (Image via GoFundMe)

A GoFundMe has been set up to help a local teacher with medical expenses.

Anissa Kermode, an award-winning teacher at Lord Tweedsmuir, was recently diagnosed with Lipedema, a somewhat rare health condition that can only be treated with surgery.

“Unfortunately, Lipedema is not covered by the Canadian health-care system,” said Jeff Doolan, a longtime friend of Kermodes and the man who set up the GoFundMe. “She needs critical surgery to give her back her quality of life.”

Doolan said in both Europe and the United States doctors diagnose and treat Lipedema, but the condition is not recognized in Canada and therefore Kermode must go to the States for an expenses round of surgeries, seven in total, that will cost upwards of $200,000.

Lipedema is a condition in which excessive amounts of fat cells build up in the body and neither diet nor exercise is effective in reducing them. Often people get misdiagnosed with traditional obesity, said Doolan, all the while they are suffering from Lipedema.

“It keeps accumulating over the years,” he added. “It’s like having something like popcorn or marbles building up under the skin. It can be very painful too.”

Doolan, a plumbing instructor at Cloverdale’s KPU campus, has been friends with Kermode for 16 years. He said when he ran into Kermode at the Cloverdale campus a few weeks ago in March, he first heard about her new diagnosis.

“She was happy she’d finally be diagnosed properly, but sad about the entire situation,” said Doolan. “She’s really had no family for years and I thought I should step up to the plate. I should try and do something for her. So that’s why I started this GoFundMe.”

He said Kermode is very community-minded and does a lot around Tweedy. She even runs the school’s travel club.

“She’s a fabulous teacher and she has always put her students first and she’s really been a model educator,” said Doolan. “She’s so great with her students. She’s a fixture at Lord Tweedsmuir. She’s been there for 28 years. She’s a fabulous lady.”

Kermode is also a career facilitator at Tweedsmuir and has helped untold amounts of students choose their career paths over the years. She is a big supporter of the Youth in Trades training program, which is how she first met Doolan, sending kids to KPU in the plumbing, carpentry, millwright, automotive, and CAD departments.

“She’s a salt-of-the-earth lady that just needs our help.”

Kermode’s GoFundMe can be accessed at gofundme.com/f/please-help-anissa-kermode.



editor@cloverdalereporter.com

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Malin Jordan

About the Author: Malin Jordan

Malin is the editor of the Cloverdale Reporter.
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