If you or your child has a cancer diagnosis and you need childcare in the Greater Hamilton Area of Ontario, Olive Us Care can help.

This new non-profit can provide up to 10 hours per month of free in-home childcare for children under 12 years of age.

Because fatigue is a predominant symptom of cancer, CBCN reached out to Georden Jones for advice on managing this symptom. Georden is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Ottawa. Her thesis focuses on cancer-related fatigue, in particular on the patient's experience with this symptom and how to implement assessment and interventions programs for cancer-related fatigue. Her thesis project is ongoing and is estimated to end by 2019. If you have any questions concerning her work, please do not hesitate to contact her by email: gjone046@uottawa.ca. 

On April 24th and 25th I was pleased to attend the 2017 CADTH Symposium in Ottawa. "Value in Health Care" was the conference aim, specifically how to define it, how to measure it and how to include it in our health system. But what is CADTH?  

In 2014, Krista Dumas of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, was shocked to receive a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer at the age of 33.  The cancer was in her liver and L5 vertebrae.

In 2013, I wrote a “My Life after Breast Cancer”, for CBCN’s Network News Spring 2014. It had been four years since being diagnosed with locally advanced, triple negative breast cancer, three years since the end of treatment. I was cancer-free and well, appreciating my bonus years.

When the nurse phoned me at 8:30 a.m. on December 15, 2015 to ask if I could make it to the hospital the same day, I knew it was serious. Receiving confirmation that same morning that I had breast cancer was devastating.

When I was suddenly diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, I really did go into shock the first few weeks. I think it's wrong to say that the diagnosis is the start of your journey. It is by no way a journey. It's a bad trip as far as I'm concerned.

In 2003, I was a happily married, active, stay-at-home mom in Calgary, Alberta, where I was born and raised. I was 46 years old and filled my days going to the gym to work out, volunteering at the school and church, and running an active household. My son was 13 and my daughters were 11 and 8 at the time. I felt healthy and not overly stressed.

“Great to see you back to your normal self,” a friend said to me recently. I nodded, and smiled my best fake smile. It’s been three years since my original diagnosis of breast cancer, two years since the end of treatment, and 18 months since my bilateral mastectomy. I've been bald, radiated, sliced, diced and pieced back together. I am strong. I am happy. But I am nowhere near “back to my normal self.”

I found a lump in my left breast by accident in the summer of 2006, shortly after I had turned 40. After a mammogram and biopsy, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was multicentric DCIS and quite aggressive. In short, this led to a whirlwind treatment and surgery plan that involved chemo, a bilateral mastectomy, radiation, a hysterectomy and eventually reconstruction surgery.