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Atlantic Region Dialogue (St. John's)

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Event Overview

Speaker & Participant Remarks

Ms. Pam Bowman, Patient Perspective

I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer 14 years ago on the Friday of Mother's Day weekend, and if you can imagine the trauma which that brought into my life, having to have to tell both my son and my mother at that time. I was told if I were very fortunate I might have 10 years to live. I'm very happy to be here 14 years later and tell you that I'm cancer free.

There could be several reasons for that. Either they were wrong or I was very stubborn, which is certainly true, or it could be attributed to the wonderful research and improved treatment that has taken place in the intervening fourteen years. I'm willing to bet it was any of those things that could have happened and maybe it was a little bit of each. In terms of my own journey with cancer after the initial shock and terror it was actually very positive. I was always treated with respect; my treatment appeared to go well. I was invited to be part of a clinical trial, the MA17 and I'm now part of the follow up to that the MA17R. I really have very wonderful things to say about the people who met me and treated me along the way.

On the other side, four years ago my husband was diagnosed with metastatic bladder cancer -obviously a very different of diagnosis, a much more serious one.

His journey was not as positive in other ways as well. One of the tumours caused a spinal fracture that needless to say that caused a great deal of pain and discomfort. Part of his protocol was that his chemo had to be administered while he was an in-patient in the hospital. Typically what would happen was that he would have an appointment to see the oncologist at 10 am on Monday morning. He would be taken there by ambulance and at approximately 12 or 1 he would see the oncologist. In the meantime, with a fractured spine, he would be lying on a gurney. After he saw the oncologist, then they would book the room. They weren't able to do that until after his appointment. That typically meant another 4-6 hours before he was in a room and so often that required that the treatment not be started until the following day.

Both from the patient's point of view and also from the hospital's point of view that wasn't a particularly positive experience-from a humanitarian point of view and an economic point of view I'm sure there were ways that could have been improved. I raise that as one of the issues that needs to be considered when we're dealing with the whole patient.

One another point going back to my own breast cancer journey, if you want to improve the life of breast cancer survivors throw them together in a dragon boat. That has probably been the most amazing experience! If you can imagine 20 women actually getting along…, it's a fabulous support group -- most of my team mates have lost weight, and are more physically fit, so this ties in very well with the previous panel. When we go to some of the larger festivals and stand on shore with another couple of hundred strong, healthy survivors of the disease it is not only good for our souls and our spirits but also good for all those people on shore who will either know someone or who may themselves one day have the same diagnosis.