Roger Foley continues to seek funding for self-directed care in Ontario.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Fox news recently featured Roger Foley, a Canadian man who is living in a London Ontario hospital for 10 years as he battles to receive self-directed care funding to enable him to be cared for at home. Foley has been offered euthanasia (MAiD) several times and has been denied food for long periods of time.

Roger is working with several supportive organizations on the Bring Roger Home campaign.

Rachel del Guidice reported for Fox news on October20:

A Canadian man battling a debilitating neurological disease told Fox News Digital that hospital staff repeatedly raised the possibility of medically assisted death while he was fighting for the home care he says he needs to survive.

Roger Foley, who has spinocerebellar ataxia, told Fox News Digital in a recent interview that the conversations began in 2016 at Victoria Hospital, part of the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, where he says he has remained hospitalized for years while seeking a self-directed home-care arrangement.

In a July 7, 2026, letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Foley's attending physician said he could safely leave the hospital if the Ontario government authorized an individualized home-care arrangement.

Foley prefers to be cared for in his home, but without the necessary funding he remains in the hospital. Dr George Dresser, Foley's physician, told Fox news in a letter that:

"By any reasonable clinical standard, you could be discharged from our hospital if you had adequate support at home,"

Dresser stated that Foley has complex medical needs that require consistent caregivers and highly individualized assistance. Dresser also stated that home-care would be a much less expensive option and provide much better "matched care."

Foley has been pressured, in the past, to consider euthanasia (MAiD) and he has experienced hospital policies that are not flexible to his needs. del Guidice reported:

Foley also alleged that the hospital removed lighting accommodations for his neurological condition in May 2025, making it difficult for him to receive care and consume food and fluids.

Foley said the lighting dispute is particularly serious because his neurological condition makes him sensitive to certain wavelengths of light, including those emited by fluorescent fixtures.

For years, he said, the hospital accommodated his condition with amber-spectrum lighting that allowed caregivers to assist him without triggering his symptoms.

But in May 2025, Foley alleged the hospital withdrew those accommodations and began requiring staff to provide care under fluorescent lighting.

He claimed the change has made it increasingly difficult to receive routine assistance, including help with eating and drinking, because he must wear large, heavy protective goggles that place additional strain on his already compromised neck.

As a friend of Roger Foley I can assure you that the lighting dispute was real. Hospital staff were ordered to turn the fluorescent lighting on while caring for Roger. Roger went days without effective nourishment because the hospital refused to feed him without turning on the fluorescent lights causing Roger significant pain from the fluorescent lights. At one point I helped Roger improvise ski goggles to enable him to eat with the fluorescent lights on.

Foley has kept his accessible apartment for the last 10 years. He could move back to his apartment if he is approved for self-directed funding. 

Foley is working with several supportive organizations on the Bring Roger Home campaign. Roger is hoping to raise the money needed to cover the extra cost for his care - over and above - what the Ontario government is willing to provide. Foley told del Guidice:

"I'm not giving up," he said. "I don't want to die, my doctors know I don't want to die, my physicians have always been very explicit and direct that it's not safe to put me in that type of close model that I need direct funding."

Once again, the cost of the care that Foley receives in the hospital is far greater than the cost of home-care that would be oriented to his individual needs and yet the Ontario Ministry of Health refuses to approve him for the level of home-care that he needs.