Our Stories

Read the latest stories about what's going on at St. Joseph's Health Care London.

split photo of two women

Fueling lifelong learning

Working as a nurse for more than 35 years, Jeannette Lydestad, RN, has taken many opportunities to further her education. “Learning new things always keeps your mind active and young,” she says. Recently, Jeannette realized her family needed the security of a full-time role – something not available in her position at the time. So, she decided to go back to school to recertify her nursing skills in the operating room. But taking a leave from work and paying for education comes at a cost. Fortunately, Jeannette was selected to receive a professional practice award, supported through the Dr...
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Dr. Arlene MacDougall and Alec Cook sit down with a laptop computer

Standing up for mental health

At 15 years old, Alec Cook knew he couldn’t continue living with the status quo. He was struggling with gender dysphoria, unable to access the health services he needed. “There wasn’t much available to help me at the time and I sometimes felt like I wasn’t being heard by health providers,” he says...
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Dr. Ivanka Nebor

The right hand of a surgeon

Sitting around the kitchen table with her family, Dr. Ivanka Nebor heard about her parents’ lives as physicians in Ukraine. Their stories of science, of compassion, and of courage inspired her to go to medical school. They also led her to found INgenius, a non-governmental organization, and first of...
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Dr. Narinder Paul

Future vision

Dr. Narinder Paul calls it a game changer. A powerful new PET/CT scanner with the potential to personalize disease diagnosis and treatment for patients. “We’re the first in the country to have this PET/CT machine,” says Dr. Paul, Chair/Chief of Medical Imaging. “It offers the most sophisticated and...
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Paul and Kim Spriet sitting together on a couch

Running with purpose

Kim Spriet was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, an inherited form of macular degeneration, as a young adult. But it wasn’t until her late thirties that the progressive vision loss started to impact her daily life. “I started questioning, will I be able to travel? Will I see my kids get married...
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United in Faith - Meet Nawaz Tahir, St. Joseph’s New Board Chair

A key facet of Nawaz Tahir’s Muslim faith is giving back to the community, making his role as the new Chair of St. Joseph’s Health Care London’s Board of Directors a natural fit with his beliefs. “What better way to give back then to volunteer my time and expertise at an organization like St. Joseph...
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Ryan Finch standing in his garage with vintage cars

$5 million gift to fuel mental health transformation

A generous $5 million personal donation from Ryan Finch will fuel new research with a goal of transforming the mental health care system locally. The donation will support an innovative new term research Chair in Mental Health System Transformation – that will work to develop collaborative...
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older couple walking through the woods

Life-long partnership lives on through research

Marcel and Louise Brunette were partners for life. They are remembered as a quiet, hard-working, down-to-earth couple, who often exhibited their love, respect and admiration for each other through the smallest of touches and the widest smiles. St. Joseph’s Health Care London played an important role...
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Fanshwae students Chieh-Lin Huang and Pablo Jimenez-Lopez

Upgrading with style

Hospital gift shops are not usually considered hip places to hang out, but a group of students from Fanshawe College’s Fashion Marketing and Management Program (FMMP) is changing that perception with some trendy transformations at St. Joseph’s Health Care London (St. Joseph’s). While the...
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