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Don Lyons and Gill Grant |
When the usually jovial and outgoing Don Lyons arrived for his first chemotherapy appointment at Princess Margaret Hospital in December, he was at a loss for words and feeling bewildered.
The self-described triple Type-A personality, known as “Doc”, was used to leading, not following. The successful restaurant owner and one-time marathon runner had recovered from two rounds of cancer surgery and was starting the next phase of treatment for lung cancer. But he had no idea what to expect.
“As hard as you've listened to the doctors and nurses tell you all about chemo, you still have a thousand questions when you get there. It's not a good feeling. You feel pretty alone.”
On that first day, however, Don met someone he describes as an angel of mercy who made all the difference. It was Gill Grant, one of the initial 12 volunteers trained to be Chemo Buddies in the chemotherapy unit where about 100 patients are treated every day.
“I was really frustrated and just wanted to get going. Gill was so gracious and calm, and her soothing attitude helped me a lot. I looked forward to seeing her at every treatment.”
Chemo Buddies is part of Healing Beyond the Body, the hospital's psychosocial oncology and palliative care program, headed by Dr. Gary Rodin.
“The diagnosis, treatment and course of cancer often trigger profound feelings of anxiety, depression, worry and isolation in patients and their family members,” says Dr. Rodin. “We know that people benefit enormously when they receive extra, personal support, information and communication.”
What Don didn't know that day is that Gill Grant is also a cancer survivor.
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Impact: $252,000 from Jim Kinnear and $50,000 from S.O. Asher to support Healing Beyond the Body and Chemo Buddies.
“I owe my life to Princess Margaret Hospital. Chemo Buddies is my chance to give back and it is an honour to volunteer.” Read Gill’s own story at www.pmhf.ca/Pages/DonorImpact/ |
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Below: Dr. Gary Rodin.
Right: Ellen Clare and
Richard Poole.
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Creative Way to Keep on Giving
Ellen Clare wanted her inheritance to keep on giving. So she gathered her trusted advisors around the dining room table and gave them instructions to implement her creative solution.
The result? A bequest structured to give one-third to charity. And because the bequest was in the form of a direct transfer of stock, not cash, it saved her estate extra thousands of dollars in taxes. She then consulted with her children to select the charities, which included The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. The vibrant, entrepreneurial Orangeville woman was treated at the hospital for lymphoma, where she also received a stem cell transplant. She died in December 2004.
“Ellen was the button-down business brain in our family and she's still teaching us,” says husband Richard Poole.
“We're all proud of her for this approach. It's created awareness in the whole family to think about how they'll manage their own estates.”
Ellen's cancer journey also inspired her family. She was a devotee of The Healing Journey program, created by PMH's Dr. Alistair Cunningham, and believed the best hope was to have the body and mind at peace. Funding from her bequest supports The Healing Journey and New Drug Development programs at PMH. For more information about planned giving, go to www.pmhf.ca/Pages/Donate/LeaveALegacy.aspx.
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Impact: $50,000 from the estate of Margaret Ellen Clare to support The Healing Journey and $300,000 to The Robert & Maggie Bras and Family New Drug Development program. |
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Donors Help Fund Colon Screening Program
Donor funding of cancer detection programs helps expand screening programs that can identify highrisk patients early, before the onset of disease.
At the colon cancer detection clinic, for example, a program has been launched to train and certify nurses to perform a key screening test, called flexible sigmoidoscopy. The program was partly funded by donors who responded to a direct mail appeal from the Foundation.
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in North America, and in Ontario, 250 people die from it each month. Flexible sigmoidoscopy can help detect polyps early, increasing the chance of cure, as 60 per cent of colorectal cancers are located in the sigmoid area of the colon. The procedure takes only 10 minutes and requires minimal preparation and no sedation.
“This is an opportunity to maximize the scope of practice for registered nurses in oncology while increasing access to colorectal screening,” says Karen Gayman, PMH Director of Nursing. As there aren't enough physicians to perform the procedure in Ontario, patients typically can wait up to eight months for a routine colonoscopy, during which time a polyp could develop into cancer.”
Princess Margaret Hospital is participating in the multi-hospital colon cancer screening project being led by Cancer Care Ontario. (For information, call the project office at 416-971-9800, ext. 3376). |