Your June edition of St. Joe's top stories

Features

Emergency gets a healthy dose of colour

Jessy Ho from the St. Joe’s Redevelopment team combined his skills in art and architecture to create a vibrant mural on the walls of the Emergency Department entrance, the first space many of our patients interact with. The mural depicts the Hamilton skyline and was designed to represent St. Joe’s and our community, and to help inspire and uplift anyone who comes through the doors of the ED. Learn more about the mural, what it represents and how it was created.

Cancer took their voice away; This club helps find a new voice

“The hospital has made rehabilitation a wonderful thing for us.” - Victor Grikes, New Voice Club member   Victor is a survivor of laryngeal cancer. With his larynx removed at 70 years old, he’s been communicating with a stoma for 20 years . Since his surgery, Victor has been a proud member of the New Voice Club. Hosted at St. Joe’s with our Speech-Language Pathologists, the club offers rehabilitation therapy and support to patients who have had a total laryngectomy. St. Joe’s is a regional centre for Head and Neck cancer.   >> Hear how the club is helping over 100 laryngeal cancer survivors from across the region.

Person first, patient second: Hélène has a message for all of us

When Hélène Hamilton was 19 years old, she experienced kidney failure and came to St. Joe’s as a transfer patient. Very ill, younger than most of the other patients, and away from her family and hometown, Hélène initially felt unsettled, isolated and alone. She then met Sister Joan, a nurse who treated her as a person first and a patient second. Today, Hélène is a Patient and Family Advisor at St. Joe’s. By sharing her perspective with staff and physicians, she helps to ensure that other patients feel the way she did when Sister Joan cared for her.  >> Read how Hélène helps to improve patient care at St. Joe’s

Research

Prostate Cancer researchers awarded over half million in funding

A team of scientists and clinicians based primarily at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton have been awarded a research grant of over $575,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research . The grant will support a three year research project, with the goal of isolating what is believed to be a primary cause of cancer growth in a subset of prostate cancers resistant to Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT). >> Keep reading to learn more about the team’s novel hypothesis that is guiding their research project.

Foundation

Landmark legacy left by Hamilton couple

Margaret and Charles Juravinski are leaving a visionary $100m+ endowment to fund health research at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University. Their estate gift is one of Canada’s largest ever legacy gifts and will provide up to $5 million a year to the institutions, in perpetuity. The proceeds will go towards funding the Juravinski Research Centre, a partnership of the three organizations. “It brings us great pleasure to think that when we are gone, our legacy to this community may be measured in the good health of those who come after us,” shared the Juravinskis in an open letter to their community.

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