A retired Winnipeg teacher who raised money for his own prostate cancer treatment after learning that provincial health insurance wouldn’t cover the procedure he wanted wants to raise awareness of the relatively new treatment in the province.

Thomas Reid, who worked as a teacher for 35 years, was diagnosed with prostate cancer last summer. The hardest part was telling his loved ones, he says.

“When I had to explain it to my daughter, or my mother, or my brother or my friend…. it choked me up,” Reid told host Marcy Markusa in a Thursday interview with CBC Manitoba’s Information Radio.

He wasn’t looking forward to the possible side-effects of radiation treatment or major surgery — which can include erectile dysfunction, incontinence and bowel issues — and started looking into his options.

“The more research I did on it made me feel a lot more comfortable about the whole situation.”

Reid began to research NanoKnife, a proprietary therapy system developed by the U.S. company AngioDynamics that’s minimally invasive, according to the company. It targets cancer cells with electricity while preserving the surrounding tissue.

But Manitoba Health won’t approve coverage for the procedure.

NanoKnife is not currently covered by any provincial health insurance plan in Canada, including in Manitoba, a provincial spokesperson told CBC News in a statement Thursday.

There’s insufficient evidence on the potential complications and long‑term outcomes from the procedure, the spokesperson said.

Dr. John Dushinski, chief medical officer with Alberta’s Prostate Cancer Centre, says the main question with any focal therapy is how it will work for cancer.

“With prostate cancer, which is extremely slow growing, you’re talking years down the road before you really know if it works,” Dushinski said.

He understands why a patient may seek NanoKnife, but also why a province wouldn’t cover it.

“There’s nothing approved for coverage, because we don’t really know how well it’s going to work,” he said.

“But incontinence and erectile function are big things for guys, and if there’s something out there that might help with that, they’re willing to give it a try.”

Reid managed to fundraise the $25,000 he needed to get NanoKnife treatment in Ontario. Many of the donations came from former students who wanted to help, he said.

“I wasn’t anticipating the whole coverage, but it has gone way past, because it’s, like, $37,000,” he said.

“What we’re going to do with that money is, I want to give more awareness to bringing NanoKnife to [Manitoba].”

He goes for the procedure in March.

“When I finally got approved, my daughter said to me…. ‘Oh, it’s real now,'” Reid said.

Although his experience with CancerCare Manitoba has been excellent, Reid thinks the province should keep NanoKnife in mind.

“We have really good services in Manitoba. We just don’t have this one.”