Dealing with cancer is tough enough, but imagine having to do maintenance work that the hospital isn't doing, at the same time.
That's what's going on in the oncology department at the Suroît Hospital in Valleyfield.
Valleyfield sisters Colette and Andree Asselin both developed breast cancer around the same time. Sitting sometimes for 6 hours getting chemotherapy, they longed to look out the hospital window.
"It was just unbelievable. It was at least three inches deep of cobwebs," Colette told CJAD News.
After months of cancer treatments, they brought the issue of their filthy windows up to hospital staff, but nothing happened — so they decided to clean the windows themselves.
"The care that we're getting is so good, it was more of a good gesture we did to help," she says.
On the other hand, Collette suggests the state of the windows tells a grave story about the state of the province's hospitals.
"I'm questioning a lot of the things that don't seem to be important for our government right now," she says, "and I think that all the cuts that have been happening are happening on the backs of the more vulnerable people."
But a spokesperson for Sante Montergie Ouest, Jade St. Jean, says it's not a budget cut issue, and that they did have plans clean the windows. However, she says others should follow the Asselin sisters' lead.
"They had good intentions to do it, but in terms of insurance, we can't agree on those initiatives," St. Jean says.