GoFundMe campaign started for beach-cleaning, brain tumour-surviving Cory West

A GoFundMe campaign has been started for 36-year-old Penticton man Cory West.

It was organized by his sister, Desiree Stiles.

Wednesday, PentictonNow published a story on the tough year and indomitable spirit of West, who started 2023 doing exactly what he enjoyed doing – working in the outdoor adventuring field with Penticton-based Hoodoo Adventures – but by April was suffering from so many worrying health issues he was forced to quit.

He didn’t know it then, but he had a brain tumour.

In September, West was flown to Vancouver for emergency brain surgery. The operation went better than expected, and by last weekend the always-upbeat West was giving back to the community by painstakingly cleaning thousands of polystyrene beads from Okanagan Lake Beach.

But he's far from 100%. His eyes are still partially crossed (thus the eye patch). Half his face is numb. His hearing is problematic. His energy is way off its norm.

He expects all of that to return to pre-incident levels by the end of the year. But in the meantime he's unable to work. And he has very little savings.

So his sister organized the GoFundMe campaign to help her bro through the next few months.

"I've found myself pretty low on funds," he told PentictonNow this afternoon, "and I'm looking for shelter for the winter and to re-certify my Wilderness First-Aid and Kayak certificates so I can work my old dream job in the adventure industry. I'd ideally like to get new certificates as well."

Currently, he pulls in approximately $600 a month through social assistance, and believes that'll soon bounce to $950 or so. And he gets $500 a month for rent.

It's something, but not much in the real world.

"It's just for a short time," he said. "I think I can begin working again by the time the snow hits. If it went back to Hoodoo, I could go out with the kids tobogganing and making fires and that could supplement my disability (payouts) until I'm ready for full-time."

Yesterday, West did some careful interval training to help in that regard. Today, he's back at the beach cleaning up that polystyrene. Soon he hopes he can look for a place to live, at least for the short-term.