GoFundMe to help beloved Canadian actor Scott Hylands

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Well-known Canadian actor Scott Hylands could use your help.

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Hylands, 78 — perhaps best known for the hit detective TV series Night Heat — was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) on Oct. 1.

This is shattering news to his family. Only six weeks prior to diagnosis, Hylands was performing his self-written, sold-out, one-man Shakespeare play Lend Me Your Ears , on Salt Spring Island, BC.

And just a few weeks after that, he was celebrating his daughter’s wedding.

Intensive chemotherapy is required to fight AML, and it works best in conjunction with a drug called Venclexta.

Venclexta is approved in Canada but it costs between $60,000 and $80,000 for treatment. Studies from the U.S. show that Venclexta plus chemotherapy shows excellent results for remission. And the drug is targeted especially to the actors’ age group.

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A GoFundMe to raise the money for Venclexta has been organized by Hylands’ wife, Veronica Hylands.

The Scott Hylands Immunotherapy Fundraiser began with a modest appeal to the community on Salt Spring Island, where the Hylands lived for 25 years and raised their two children. That helped them raise just over half the $50,000 goal.

Word got out quickly in the industry, and many of Hylands’ old cast-mates, including Jeff Wincott and actor-director Clark Johnson, as well as other people on both sides of the camera, have contributed.

Former Night Heat co-star Wincott (currently starring in The Issue With Elvis ) spoke fondly of his work experience with Hylands, saying he’d been as much a teacher as a partner on the show.

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“I was lucky to have worked with him on my first big acting job. He taught me a lot. He was always prepared, professional and he cared deeply about doing good work, a lesson and example I carried with me throughout my career,” Wincott said.

In an interview on Monday, Veronica Hylands, the actor’s wife of 31 years, said the first shipment of Venclexta was on its way.

“They’re calling it a miracle drug,” she said. “With the combination of chemotherapy and Venclexta, the prognosis improves astronomically.”

She and their two adult children are still in shock over Hylands’ diagnosis. His wife said he has otherwise been the healthiest person she knows.

“This is overwhelming to us,” she said.

Despite the success Hylands had on TV a generation ago, he is, like so many Canadians, a journeyman actor.

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“There are no residuals,” said Veronica Hylands. “I’m sure people will wonder, ‘You don’t have the money?” and yes, his show was successful, but that was 30 years ago. He still works for a living at his age.

“We don’t live high off the hog,” she said.

She doesn’t sound embarrassed — she just wants people to know they wouldn’t ask if they didn’t need the help. It’s unfamiliar territory. The Hylands contribute regularly to Sick Kids Hospital, B.C. Kids and other good causes.

“We’ve never had to ask a penny from anyone before,” she said. “If the drug weren’t so promising, we wouldn’t be doing this.”

One thing the GoFundMe has shown her is that there’s a lot of love out there for her husband — in film, TV and theatre. All kinds of people in the entertainment industry have contributed to the GoFundMe, said Hyland.

“We are thriving on the kindness of people. There are people stepping up to help, some we haven’t spoken to in 30 years,” she said.

“The response from his old cast-mates has been wonderful. There were people who worked on that show who were kids back then. They never really spoke to him, but out of respect, they have contributed.

“It’s because he always treated everyone equally.”