Laura Gordon
Laura Gordon has a family history of breast cancer so when she felt a lump in her breast, she knew something was wrong. Standard mammography scans at her community hospital kept returning clear results, but a referral to RVH’s high-risk cancer program would prove otherwise and mark the beginning of the fight of her life.
Lee Downs
Lee Downs leads a full life. He’s passionate about baseball, loves golf, and could spend hours on the water waiting for the perfect fish to bite. He recently got married and is enjoying this exciting phase as a newlywed.
Lee can do all this because he has access to lifesaving dialysis care close to home.
Scott Dion
He was diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, in 2016. Common complications of that condition are blood clots, something that would become an issue before Scott could begin treatment.
Just two weeks after his diagnosis was confirmed, Scott suffered a pulmonary embolism, a severe blood clot of an artery in his lung.
Stephanie Cobble
Before Stephanie Cobble walked into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at RVH, she felt helpless, drained and overcome with worry. Her son Christopher had been transferred overnight from Sunnybrook’s Level 3 NICU, where he had spent the first five weeks of his life, to the Level 2C NICU at RVH.
Stephanie had to wait until the morning to see her son.
Brad Ross
It was just another Monday when Brad Ross woke up on February 27th of this year.
He started his day with a cup of coffee, had some breakfast and ventured down to his home gym for a workout. He rode his Peloton bike for about 30 minutes, tossed in a load of laundry and then his daughter called. “We were talking, and I still hadn’t caught my breath,” he says. After ending the call, Brad’s discomfort got worse.
Kent Mannen
Kent Mannen is a young father and husband. He’s active. He plays sports and helps coach his son’s hockey team. He’d been to RVH’s Emergency Department before, but for nothing like this.
A week earlier, while playing hockey with his buddies, Kent felt the first of his symptoms.
“I felt a little stitch in my side,” he said. “It had been a tough shift, so I went to the bench and had a few squirts of water and felt better.”
Iris Laycock
Iris Laycock is a marathon runner, triathlete, and an Ironman. She’s also receiving cancer care at the David and Catherine Hudson Regional Cancer Centre (HRCC) at RVH.
“You could have pushed me over with a feather,” shares Iris of learning she had cancer. “I was that shocked. I lead a healthy, active lifestyle. I couldn’t believe it.”
Iris was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2022 after a routine fecal immunochemical test (FIT) screened positive. More tests followed and confirmed the worst.
Lois Yanuzzi
Lois Yanuzzi is a golfer, a swimmer and a hiker. She’s also living with cancer. Each morning she wakes up in her Tiny Township home with a grateful heart.
“I know how valuable each day is,” said Lois. “I am one of the fortunate patients at RVH, as I continually feel well and am living life as usual.”
In November 2020, Lois went to the Emergency Department of her local hospital for what she assumed was pneumonia. After a thorough examination, the ER physician suspected something else.
Keith Hartley
Keith Hartley has lived in Innisfil for 25 years. He’s quick with a joke and wears a smile that’s contagious. Not all people who’ve been through what he has in the last year would be as resilient.
“I couldn’t even imagine where we’d be today without RVH,” reflected his wife, Kelley.
She feared the worst when her husband, Keith, was diagnosed with colon cancer in October of 2021. She had no way of knowing what was to come.
Kathryn Henkenhaf
It all started on a visit to my grandchildren. Every time I took a step, it felt like I was being stabbed in the stomach.
I told myself I was overreacting, and the pain would go away. But I’d been in agony for three days, and it wasn’t getting better. My husband and I decided to go to the emergency department at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH).
Ted Markle
Ted Markle is the organizer of the Braestone Winter Classic. Reflecting on his cancer journey, he feels an appreciation—not for the journey itself, but for the perspective, it has given him on the life he feels lucky to have.
Four years ago, Ted noticed a lump on his neck while shaving. He brought it up to his doctor. After a few biopsies, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Dianne Mehaffey
Dianne Mehaffey is a member of RVH’s Auxiliary and a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor. She knits, walks, and spends as much time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as she can.
She volunteers on Monday afternoons at the welcome desk in the David and Catherine Hudson Regional Cancer Centre (HRCC) and when it starts back up, she’ll be once again assisting with the Look Good, Feel Better program to help women with cancer feel better about themselves.
After all, she knows what that journey is like.