Our Stories

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

Most Recent
Popular
Featured

Unlocking boundless potential

Ashmeet Gill had her first PET/CT scan shortly after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the body’s germ-fighting immune system. She was nervous. Claustrophobia is an issue for the young Stratford resident and the scan, necessary to determine if the cancer had spread beyond the lymph nodes in her neck, would take 34 to 45 minutes, she was told. Wrapped in a sheet and tucked inside the tube of the PET/CT at St. Joseph’s Health Care London (St. Joseph’s), Ashmeet, then 24, steeled herself to remain calm. But near the end of the scan, a sense of panic set in. “It was not pleasant...

a sustainable living wall full of plants

Your donation brightens lives in so many ways

The healing power of nature With mounting evidence of the benefits of plants to an individual’s physical and mental health, a beautiful living wall was installed at Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care, thanks to donor support. The sustainable living wall features three panels full of plant life and...

Acts of service

Inside Sylvia O’Connell’s (née Winstanley) closet at Parkwood Institute hangs her battle dress uniform from the Second World War. The jacket’s green wool and precise stitching have remained in pristine condition since she served in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, stationed in England. It’s the...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...