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16 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday January 21, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com Concert to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa Mezzo soprano Norine Burgess and tenor Mervyn Russell will be accompanied by Andrei Streliaev in The Three Gifts Concert: Faith, Hope and Love on Saturday, Jan. 24. It will take place at St. Jude's Anglican Church in downtown Oakville at 7:30 p.m. The event supports the $Million or More Oakville campaign and the Stephen Lewis Foundation to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. Tickets are available at 905- Continued from page 15 844-3972 or millionor- like to think that if someone was in dire need moreslf@sympatico.ca or 905- and their circumstances were known to doc469-6415. tors at such centres of excellence, there would be some way found to address their situation. He also said he and his office would support their case. The MPP said rules are in place to protect the general population and the health care system, however he also noted that in some cases rules may be bent or broken based on circumstances and that his office and staff exist to address those situations. King confirmed that Flynn's office was working to gather, and track, all paperwork filed in regard to this case. "We try to get people what they need. We try to make the system work for them and we're hoping to make this work," said Flynn. According to information from Shallhorn King, Flynn's office has told her that it has contacted the two centres for excellence and spoke to the Bariatric office about her. Correspondence received by Shallhorn King states, "Both hospitals are willing to have you in for a consultation, but they both need your family physician to send in a referral. Once your doctor sends your referral to either of the hospitals, please contact me and (we) will call the hospital directly to see if we can get your case expedited." The correspondence also noted that "St. Joe's does cover lap band surgery under its research budget. One of the main criteria you Appealing her case "Now we have to appeal our appeal. It makes no sense." Debbie Shallhorn King, Oakville resident will have to meet is have a body mass index of 40." All that said, King admitted she felt no closer to getting the surgery she needs as it's difficult for her to get around and she feels disappointment that paperwork needs to go through the bureaucratic process, when she thought it already had. "They want us to re-apply to see if we can have our appeal for an exception accepted. We've done two appeals: one they maintain they never got, and the 2008 re-appeal got turned down. Now we have to appeal our appeal. It makes no sense," said Shallhorn King. Yesterday, Shallhorn King told The Beaver Murray-Hayes was arranging for a bariatric specialist to receive all her medical information and a doctor, who works out of McMaster and has a connection to St. Joseph's, to assess Shallhorn King so she won't have to leave the house. It is also St. Joseph's at which they do lap band surgery under a type of grant program, she said.