- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,222
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
Thirty-five years after appearing in the Citizen for her travelling cancer awareness presentations, Barbara Hollander has retired from her post at the Canadian Cancer Society.
“I still love the work I was doing, I felt very attached to it,” she said. “I didn’t take that decision lightly at all.”
Hollander kept the yellowed Citizen article detailing her work educating businesses about cancer and prevention. In the photo, she stands beside a car in a dark suit with a flowing white scarf, smiling.
The newspaper asked Hollander for her story after she came to the Baxter Road office in 1980 as part of the “Industrial Cancer Education Service”, a team of six registered nurses who travelled Ontario to educate the public.
“One of the biggest things we were trying to do was break down misconceptions about cancer and fears of cancer,” said Hollander.
She said cancer was very “hush-hush” in those days. People feared they could “catch” it just by sitting next to somebody who had been diagnosed, Hollander said.
For more than 15 years, Hollander travelled all over Eastern Ontario with her trusty visual aid Smoking Sam, whose filter “lungs” turned brown when he “smoked” a cigarette.
After her stint with the education service, she trained volunteers to help deliver the message, and then moved on to community engagement.
“I discovered that health promotion and prevention really did become my passion,” Hollander said.
Before she retired at the beginning of October, Hollander was the regional co-ordinator for Smokers’ Helpline, a confidential service providing help to kick the habit.
A lot of things have changed since Hollander first started roaming around Ontario in her blue and white Pontiac Laurentian with Smoking Sam.
“Imagine now going into workplaces saying, ‘Can somebody give me a cigarette so I can create some second-hand smoke in your workplace?’ ” she said, laughing.
Hollander is very proud of her role in cancer prevention and encouraging personal responsibility for one’s health through diet and lifestyle choices, such as quitting smoking.
However, her greatest achievement was helping to change the perceptions of cancer.
“People were always called cancer “victims”. You don’t hear that wording anymore,” she said.
It’s much more acceptable to talk about “the Big C” and survival rates have increased dramatically, Hollander said.
Statistics from the Canadian Cancer Society for 2015 indicate that 63 per cent of people with cancer will survive at least five years after their diagnosis. Between 1980 to 1984, survival rates for men were only 40 per cent, while 55 per cent of women were expected to survive.
To the cancer awareness advocates who will be filling her shoes, Hollander said, “Be gentle with your message.”
“Get their story first … it’s amazing what people come up with on their own,” she said.
She looks forward to spending more time hiking, cycling and performing with the Bytown Ukelele Group, who jam once a month and put on volunteer concerts around Ottawa.
Before people think she’s going to just take it easy in her retirement years, she said, Hollander also plans to work with children.
查看原文...
“I still love the work I was doing, I felt very attached to it,” she said. “I didn’t take that decision lightly at all.”
Hollander kept the yellowed Citizen article detailing her work educating businesses about cancer and prevention. In the photo, she stands beside a car in a dark suit with a flowing white scarf, smiling.
The newspaper asked Hollander for her story after she came to the Baxter Road office in 1980 as part of the “Industrial Cancer Education Service”, a team of six registered nurses who travelled Ontario to educate the public.
“One of the biggest things we were trying to do was break down misconceptions about cancer and fears of cancer,” said Hollander.
She said cancer was very “hush-hush” in those days. People feared they could “catch” it just by sitting next to somebody who had been diagnosed, Hollander said.
For more than 15 years, Hollander travelled all over Eastern Ontario with her trusty visual aid Smoking Sam, whose filter “lungs” turned brown when he “smoked” a cigarette.
After her stint with the education service, she trained volunteers to help deliver the message, and then moved on to community engagement.
“I discovered that health promotion and prevention really did become my passion,” Hollander said.
Before she retired at the beginning of October, Hollander was the regional co-ordinator for Smokers’ Helpline, a confidential service providing help to kick the habit.
A lot of things have changed since Hollander first started roaming around Ontario in her blue and white Pontiac Laurentian with Smoking Sam.
“Imagine now going into workplaces saying, ‘Can somebody give me a cigarette so I can create some second-hand smoke in your workplace?’ ” she said, laughing.
Hollander is very proud of her role in cancer prevention and encouraging personal responsibility for one’s health through diet and lifestyle choices, such as quitting smoking.
However, her greatest achievement was helping to change the perceptions of cancer.
“People were always called cancer “victims”. You don’t hear that wording anymore,” she said.
It’s much more acceptable to talk about “the Big C” and survival rates have increased dramatically, Hollander said.
Statistics from the Canadian Cancer Society for 2015 indicate that 63 per cent of people with cancer will survive at least five years after their diagnosis. Between 1980 to 1984, survival rates for men were only 40 per cent, while 55 per cent of women were expected to survive.
To the cancer awareness advocates who will be filling her shoes, Hollander said, “Be gentle with your message.”
“Get their story first … it’s amazing what people come up with on their own,” she said.
She looks forward to spending more time hiking, cycling and performing with the Bytown Ukelele Group, who jam once a month and put on volunteer concerts around Ottawa.
Before people think she’s going to just take it easy in her retirement years, she said, Hollander also plans to work with children.
查看原文...
