25 years of cancer care in Niagara

The Oncology Program marks 25 years of service to Niagara this year. Pictured here are Oncology staff from 1986 in the original chemotherapy treatment room at the former Hotel Dieu Hospital. Front row from left are Barbara Marshall, Leila Phillipson and Trudy Street. Back row from left are Mary Anne Goldsborough, Julie Moscher, Carolyn Helstrom, Elaine McLeod and Janet Wheeler.

Highlights from the last 25 years

1985: Dr. Brian Findlay arrives in St Catharines; starting the oncology service at Hotel Dieu Hospital. He works with a staff of four: a nurse manager, two part-time nurses and a support person.

1985: 400 new patients are served by the program

1988: Dr. Martin Samosh joins Oncology Program; Dr. Findlay sees patients at the Niagara Falls and Welland clinics

1989: Dr. Janice Giesbrecht arrives. New nurses are hired along the way

1992: Ontario Breast Screening Centre opens, spearheaded by Dr. Giesbrecht

1994: Dr. Philip Hughes joins the medical staff; takes over the Niagara Falls clinic on Tuesday afternoons

1995: Oncology Program marks 10 years of service. The Governor General (Jackman) comes to the clinic to honour this milestone. A cookbook put together by Oncology staff is sold with proceeds going to patient care in the form of a sound system.

1999: Oncology implements an electronic medical record

2001: Nurse-led Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter program starts

2001: Dr. Richard Shao, the program’s fifth oncologist, arrives

2005: Clinical Trials Department is the first Canadian recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology award for excellence in clinical trials

2005: Oncology Program moves to St. Catharines General Site of NHS, with dedicated oncology pharmacy and pharmacists within the clinic area and accessible to patients

2008: Dr. Michael Levesque joins the medical staff

2009: 6,900 chemotherapy visits and 24,500 clinic visits; approximately 45 staff support the Oncology Program.

Special thanks to the organizers and participants of the annual Rankin Run and all the donors whose kindness and generosity have enabled expansions, the creation of a quiet room, a multi-purpose room, and other important enhancements.

The Oncology Program is planning to hold an open house in April in recognition of the 25-year milestone.

Further details will follow
in future editions of
Niagara Health Now.

From left are Dr. Brian Findlay, founder of the Oncology program, and Drs. Philip Hughes, Janice Giesbrecht and Martin Samosh, who joined the program between 1988 and 1994, and continue to care for and support cancer patients and their families today. This photo was taken at the former Hotel Dieu Hospital.

Members of the Oncology team make themselves at home in their new space at the St. Catharines General Site shortly after moving there in 2005. From left are: Marsha Hildebrand, Dr. Janice Giesbrecht, Barbara Marshall, Luci Hallett and Karen Jones.

Cancer survivor Laurie Martens, centre, with her family: “It was just such a hopeful place. I told myself that I was not going to die. I am going to live.”

Laurie Martens was 22 years old when she found out she had cancer. The first-time mom had given birth to her daughter just 10 days earlier.

Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a form of cancer that affects the lymphatic system, Laurie found herself too weak to care for herself or her baby, and her husband was working and unable to provide full-time care to them.

“I had to move in with my parents, and they took care of me and my baby,” says Laurie, reflecting on her challenging yet triumphant journey with cancer in 1988.

Every two weeks for the next six months, Laurie found herself at Hotel Dieu Hospital, undergoing chemotherapy treatment in the Oncology Department, which had opened just three years earlier.

“The nurses and the volunteers there were all so kind,” says Laurie. “They were always asking me to bring the baby in. It wasn’t like I was a patient. It was like we were a family.”

Although some family members wanted Laurie to get her cancer care in Toronto, Laurie says she preferred to be close to home in St. Catharines. “It was the best care I could have received.”

Cancer-free 22 years later, Laurie remembers how, at such a difficult time in her life, she was always comforted by the small, family-like atmosphere in the Oncology Department.

“Everyone would come running out to see how I was doing even if they weren’t working with me,” she says. Her caregivers always made a point of fussing over her husband when he brought Laurie in for her treatments.

Now a mother of four children (ages 16, 18, 20 and 22), Laurie recalls how her caregivers would celebrate the milestones in her treatment with her, like not losing weight or her hair after four months of chemotherapy treatment.

“Their encouragement gave me such hope,” says Laurie.

This February, the Oncology Program marks a quarter of a century of service in Niagara to patients like Laurie, who come to them for care, support and compassion during a vulnerable and frightening time in their lives.

Over these 25 years, many changes have occurred within the Oncology Program. Chief among them are the advances in cancer treatments.

“In the 25 years we have been caring for the patients of Niagara, we have witnessed the development of many new therapies allowing us to offer treatment to many more patients, improving their length and quality of life,” says Dr. Brian Findlay, founder of the Oncology Program in 1985 and Chief of Oncology Services for the NHS. “In addition, advances in supportive care have also significantly improved patients’ quality of life.”

In 2005, the Oncology Program transferred from the former Hotel Dieu to the Niagara Health System. What hasn’t changed in 25 years is this team of professionals’ commitment to care and support patients and their families through their treatment plan. Many among the Medical Oncologists, specialized Oncology Nurses, Social Worker, Radiation Oncologists, Pharmacists, Nutritionist and Religious Care Consultant have worked with the program for 20 or more years. Their patient-centred approach guides patients through the initial assessment, testing and treatments, education and ongoing follow-up.

“The evolution and growth of the Oncology Program is an important success story for Niagara,” says Linda Boich, Vice President of Patient Services with NHS. “On behalf of our patients and families, I would like to thank each and every one of the care providers who, year after year for 25 years, has provided compassionate, dedicated care and support to patients and their loved ones at a time in their lives when they needed it most.”

NHS Board member Jean Armitage recalls the Oncology Program’s early years, when she was Assistant Executive Director, Patient Services for Hotel Dieu.

“When I started at the hospital, the Oncology Program had been established for about two and a half years, and it was already busy and working at full capacity,” Jean said. “Through the next 12 years that I worked with them, the staff always worked above and beyond what was expected of them. As the program continued to grow both in numbers of patients and the variety of services provided, the dedication and commitment of everyone was always at the highest level.”

Now located on the third floor of the Moore/McSloy Wing at St. Catharines General Site, the Outpatient Oncology Clinic houses outpatient clinics that provide consultation for new patients, diagnostic procedures, chemotherapy treatment, education, psychosocial support and follow-up care for the vast majority of cancer patients.

The NHS also provides satellite clinics at the Greater Niagara General and Welland sites where consultation, follow-up and supportive care is provided to outpatients and inpatients promoting care as close to home as possible.

In addition to clinical care, the Oncology Program has a long history of participation in clinical trials in conjunction with the NCIC Clinical Trials Group, the Ontario Clinical Trials Oncology Group and industry partners. It was the first and only Canadian centre to be awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Trials Participation Award in 2005.

The Oncology Program is affiliated with Cancer Care Ontario and the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, ensuring comprehensive, integrated cancer services are available for the people of Niagara.

The Oncology Clinic collaborates with several other partners, including: Ontario Breast Screening Program; Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Community Care Access Centre; Canadian Cancer Society, Niagara Unit; Hospice Niagara; Wellspring Niagara; Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Community Hospice Palliative Care Network; Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre.

“We are thankful for our partnership with the Juravinski Cancer Centre and Cancer Care Ontario as it allows us to provide seamless care for patients requiring radiation treatment,” explains Trudy Street, Manager of Clinical Oncology Services at NHS. “Radiation treatment is currently not available in Niagara, which means patients and radiation oncologists have to travel between Hamilton and Niagara for treatment and related services.”

“Thanks to the support of initially the Hotel Dieu and now the Niagara Health System, as well as Cancer Care Ontario, and especially thanks to the tremendous dedicated staff in our clinic, we have been able to provide a level of care to cancer patients in Niagara that has served as a model for community cancer clinics for 25 years,” says Dr. Findlay.

When Niagara’s Walker Family Cancer Centre opens in 2013 at the new healthcare complex in St. Catharines, the Oncology Program will be able to provide the full spectrum of cancer services, including radiation therapy. The new cancer centre will serve the more than 2,500 Niagara residents diagnosed with cancer each year and will play a vital role in the regional cancer plan.

Having a cancer diagnosis is often described as a journey. The Walker Family Cancer Centre will be able to provide all treatments to 95% of patients diagnosed with cancer in this region, allowing more of them to make all of this very personal journey at home, here in Niagara.

Once her chemotherapy treatments were completed, Laurie had to travel to Hamilton once a week for a month for radiation treatment. Receiving her cancer care entirely in Niagara is something Laurie feels would have improved her quality of life.

Since she lived in rural St. Catharines, she was able to get back home before feeling ill from her chemotherapy treatments. That wasn’t the case with Hamilton, and she often found herself unwell on the way back from radiation treatments.

“The drive to Hamilton was a lot of work,” she says.” It took a lot of time to get there and back.”

Laurie has a number of vivid memories of her chemo treatment.

“I always loved the security blankets. My favourite part was getting the blanket.”

On her last day of treatment, Laurie received a corsage. “The other day I was cleaning out my drawer, and I saw it there. It was such an important milestone for me.”

While in treatment for cancer, Laurie’s long-term goal was to thrive in the face of her medical condition, to live a normal and productive life. She credits her treatment, and the doctors, nurses and staff at the Oncology Program for helping her do exactly that.

“It was just such a hopeful place,” she says. “I told myself that I was not going to die. I am going to live.”  «