BANFF – Shakil Amin lost his young son to a rare form of cancer eight years ago – and he has never fully recovered from that trauma.
His son Rehan died in February 2016 at age five following an almost four-year battle with retinoblastoma, which is a rare eye cancer that affects young children.
“It broke me so much that I cannot explain to you,” said Amin. “There is a fog in my brain and it doesn’t go away.”
Amin, who is a member of Banff Mineral Springs Hospital’s community board, openly speaks about his trauma to bring awareness to the first-ever Banff Mental Health and Addiction Week (BMHAW) on May 6-10.
Along with the hospital's community board, this is a new initiative that he helped spearhead to create awareness, build a community response and reduce the stigma of mental health and addiction concerns that reach into every facet of the local community.
For the first time, more than 30 community partners have come together to create a week of free preventative programs for Banff and Lake Louise residents to take time for self-care, to connect and have a conversation about mental health and addiction.
Community board officials say the hope is that by opening up the conversation, the stigmas can start to melt away and real progress can be made.
“As advocates for community health, we have been hearing from our partners that this area of need is growing within our community,” said Lori Bayne, chair of Banff Mineral Springs Hospital Community Board.
“From our residents, we are hearing that there is a lack of awareness of the plethora of services available. The board wanted to help with navigation for locals and to create a safe place to start the conversation to reduce the stigma.”
For Amin, watching Rehan go through extensive treatments to fight the cruel disease that is cancer, which eventually claimed his young life, has taken a heavy toll on his mental health over the past decade.
The family, including his wife Fauzia and their older son Kaiser, who is now 15 years old and in Grade 10 at Canmore Collegiate High School, spent three years in Toronto, including staying at Ronald McDonald House, getting the best care they could for Rehan, who went through chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant.
He had surgery to remove his eye, but sadly the cancer came back and spread to other areas of his body including his spine and brain.
At one point, Amin said the doctors indicated that Rehan simply couldn’t take any more radiation and he only had a few days left to live.
He said he and his wife would sit with the doctors every day, being told the worst-case scenarios.
“At one point my little boy – he was almost five by then – and he says, ‘Papa, I feel the smell of burn’, because we are radiating him,” he said.
“The doctor says at one point ‘Shakil, you have to give up because we cannot keep burning him down’.”
In the end, Rehan and his family went to Emily’s House, a children’s hospice providing a temporary home-away-from-home for children and their families requiring end-of-life palliative care and medical respite support.
“He was just waiting to die there,” said Amin.
Amin had assumed he would go back to continue his work as a medical physician as time went by, but since the death of his son, he has not been able to as he struggled with his mental health.
He and his wife, a dentist, own the Banff and Canmore dentistry practices.
“Although I am a physician and I know that mental health is a real thing – and even I would tell my own patients that mental health, you need to be treated, like any other diseases like diabetes or heart disease – but my mind denied this thing,” he said. “I said, ‘I can handle it.’”
But he couldn’t.
“I just got up to drop my son (Kaiser) to the school in Banff Elementary School and then come home and sleep,” he said of the time immediately following Rehan’s death.
“And at three o’clock, I woke up and go pick him up, buy him a burger and go to bed again.”
It wasn’t until a couple of years after his son had passed away that Amin was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
While prescription medicine and counselling have helped, he still struggles daily.
“Yes, I am better than before, but not to that standard I was,” he said, noting he still finds it difficult to read and concentrate and to function properly at times.
“That is my last 10 years of my life.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amin joined the community board of Banff Mineral Springs Hospital and began championing mental health issues and encouraging people to accept and talk about their struggles.
“It’s time that we all talk about it so that it’s no longer taboo or something we cannot discuss,” he said.
“The goal is to create in an earnest way that everyone from kids in high school to those at the seniors centre can talk about it. They can sit down and talk about it, and know nobody has to be alone.”
Along with Amin, other ambassadors during Banff’s first Mental Health and Addiction Week are J.P. Middleton and Makaylah Rogers, who will also be sharing their personal stories to help raise awareness and reduce the stigma of mental health and addiction needs.
Rogers is a mental health advocate and speaker who creates spaces that bring down walls, deepens connection and fosters empathy. A neurodivergent, queer, non-binary, trauma survivor with a raw, yet relatable approach, they share stories that humanize mental health struggles.
Rogers is passionate about sharing their personal stories to educate and raise awareness around depression, anxiety, neurodiversity, PTSD, suicide prevention, 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusivity, emotional abuse, bullying, sexual abuse, sexual assault and violence.
Middleton, a familiar face around Banff, had a devastating skiing accident at Banff’s Mount Norquay in 2018, leaving him with a spinal cord injury that changed his life forever, leaving him wheelchair-bound without the use of his lower body.
His personal journey following his accident taught him to accept loss and the life-long limitations of a severe physical disability and the associated mental trauma.
He says that a spinal cord injury is “90 per cent mental struggle and 10 per cent physical struggle”.
“We are motivated by our BMHAW ambassadors who are helping to make our community better by sharing their personal stories,” said Bayne.
One of the key events during the week is the screening of The Paradise Paradox at the Lux Theatre on Wednesday, May 8, from 7-9 p.m. Executive produced by Olympic ski racer Bode Miller and Emmy Award-winning impact sports filmmaker Brett Rapkin, the film explores the mental health crisis affecting America’s mountain towns and the innovative solutions being developed in response.
The film screening, hosted by the Town of Banff, will be followed by a panel discussion with local individuals with lived experiences.
While every person, at one time in their life, experiences bumps along the way, their experiences are different, unique, and personal.
Alison Gerrits, director of community services for the Town of Banff, said the 2023 community social assessment in Banff unearthed findings related to mental health.
In particular, Gerrits said a number of residents spoke to their dealings with high levels of stress related to affordability challenges, including the cost of food, but mostly around housing – specifically around the limited options around the availability of suitable and affordable housing.
"There were also several disclosures of anxiety and stress specific to concerns around natural disasters that put health and safety at risk such as the threat of wildfires and potential evacuation from the community," she said.
"A number of residents also spoke about the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic had on them specific to isolation and a sense of disconnection from the community, which was described as having a significant impact on individual well-being and mental health."
Mineral Springs Hospital will host an ethics chat on stigma – a powerful social force that creates barriers to good health and well-being – at YWCA Banff on Tuesday, May 7, from 12-1:30 p.m. This talk will describe how stigma is created, its consequences, and what we can do to reduce its effect. Registration is required.
Other events include a compassion circle for people who have experienced domestic or sexual violence, sessions on menopause and mental health, for those who are caregivers of those with illness, aging needs or disability; men’s health; Coffee with a Cop; a workshop on food and body image for teenagers; mental health and suicide prevention programs; dancing for seniors, yoga and fitness classes; and Filipino potluck and zumbia, among many more programs and events.
Visit www.bmhaw.ca for dates, times, location, and registration information.
Need support? Call or text the Distress Centre Helpline 24/7 at 403-266-4357 or call the 24/7 Mental Health Helpline at 1-877-303-2642.
