'I'll go without them,' Hector Hinkley, 40, of Port Hawkesbury said of the cancer treatment drugs. 'It's a pretty easy decision to make because I lived my life.' (CBC)

With money running out, a Port Hawkesbury man battling cancer says he faces the choice of either feeding his family or treating his illness, a choice a cancer group says people shouldn't be forced to make.

Hector Hinkley, 40, was diagnosed with a brain tumour 20 months ago, and, according to his doctors, the chemotherapy drug Temodol is the only thing keeping him alive.

The drug costs $30,000 a year, but the government only covers it for six months, which means the funding for Hinkley's next round of chemotherapy has run out.

"I haven't got a rich family so I got nowhere to turn for help," said Hinkley, a father of three.

Hinkley was laid off by Federal Gypsum and began working as a roofer, but his illness forced him to stop. His wife Laura works at a call centre.

After two years of paying their share of Hinkley's medications, there's no money left, so it has been a very stressful time for the family.

"Last month I was told the pills were not covered and I was crushed. Then when I got it back and they said I was covered and I got a letter in the mail saying I was covered for six more months. We were very excited," Hinkley said.

"The day before I was due to start my pills they tell me I'm not covered again, so I have not much faith left in the health coverage."

Working to raise money

The Cape Breton Cancer Centre in Sydney is trying to raise money to help people like Hinkley.

Tom MacNeil, with the centre, said there are two problems: the new drugs are extremely expensive and people with no drug plan have no hope of paying their share.

It's creating a two-tier system, he told CBC News.

"If you make advances in health care but you make them so unaffordable to people, then it's almost like the advances aren't there at all because you can't access that," MacNeil said.

Hinkley said that leaves him with a terrible choice.

"I'll go without them," he said of the drugs. "For me, it's a pretty easy decision to make because I lived my life."

His wife considers that no choice at all.

"He shouldn't have to say, 'OK, I'll live for another year so my family can eat,'" Laura said. "This is Canada."

Hinkley hopes that he can beat his cancer without the drugs.