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Jim Holt went to the doctor in November with a sore back, only to learn he had stage 4 cancer.

Now the former Canadian fighter pilot and Foreign Affairs officer is facing $61,000 in medical bills as he lies dying in an Ottawa palliative care hospital.

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Holt, 79, moved to Italy 12 years ago when he married an Italian concert pianist after his first wife died. The pair split their time between Italy and Argentina — his wife’s home country — and made regular visits to Canada to visit his children until last summer when Holt developed a sore back.

Doctors in Argentina diagnosed a fractured vertebra. Not trusting the care there, Holt came to Ottawa in November and, with the help of his daughter Caroline, applied for Ontario Health Insurance Plan benefits, which require a minimum three-month residency.

He got the bad news from doctors at The Ottawa Hospital. The fracture was the result of cancer that had spread from his lungs to his spine. Doctors began aggressive treatment. He had other tests and eventually a massive dose of radiation just before Christmas that left him partially paralyzed below the waist.