Cancer Survivor Turns Cancer Information Specialist
By: News Canada

(NC)-When callers to the Canadian Cancer Society's information service connect with Isabelle Wilson, they're talking to someone who's been there herself.

The Christmas of 1997 was turned upside down for the Montreal mother of three. Days before the holiday she learned she had a rare tumour on her left lung. The lung was removed on Christmas Eve. Wilson was a 30-year-old non-smoker and had a six-month-old baby at home. Even her doctors were stunned.

"Everything went so fast," she says. "I didn't know what was happening to me."

Worse, Wilson had to recuperate during the infamous ice storm, which knocked out power and heat to her home for days. Eventually she turned to the Canadian Cancer Society's information service for support and help in understanding her condition. It was a life-changing call. Three years later, Wilson joined the service herself.

"Knowing there was a professional there who was with me and researching this disease too meant a lot. I felt a lot less isolated," says Wilson, a biologist and former health services worker. "One morning I woke up and said, 'I have to do this job.'"

The service is Canada's toll-free bilingual source of cancer information. Trained and caring specialists provide information about cancer and community resources. This helps newly diagnosed patients and their families understand their condition and act as informed members of their healthcare team.

When you want to know more about cancer, call the Canadian Cancer Society's information service at 1 888 939-3333 or e-mail info@cis.cancer.ca.

About The Author News Canada provides a wide selection of current, ready-to-use copyright free news stories and ideas for Television, Print, Radio, and the Web. News Canada is a niche service in public relations, offering access to print, radio, television, and now the Internet media, with ready-to-use, editorial "fill" items. Monitoring and analysis are two more of our primary services. The service supplies access to the national media for marketers in the private, the public, and the not-for-profit sectors. Your corporate and product news, consumer tips and information are packaged in a variety of ready-to-use formats and are made available to every Canadian media organization including weekly and daily newspapers, cable and commercial television stations, radio stations, as well as the Web sites Canadians visit most often. Visit News Canada and learn more about the NC services.

This article was posted on July 17, 2002

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