What I'm learning and getting from 'giving back'...

I'm going to try something new with this post in making it feel more informal.  If you're reading this ready for 'another of Stu's lectures', you can probably put down your pen(s) and paper / notepad, as I hope this ends up feeling more like we're just chatting over coffee.

Today, I'm writing with updates on the cool things I've been able to spend my time on, and to reflect on how we can each get significant personal returns on the investments we make in helping others.  Already, that last sentence sounds a little overly inflated to me, so I'll do my best to keep things balanced.  Even before my current brain cancer experience, I've been a firm believer in the benefits of giving back and helping others.

After my 2022 diagnosis and surgery, I started searching for resources and community connections where I could learn more about my new experiences and find others with similar stories.  I started more generally by looking for "Brain Tumour" information and groups, so joined support groups with the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada (https://www.braintumour.ca/) and helped by raising funds in their annual Brain Tumour Walk.  I found a fantastic Twitter community who connect to chat about all things Brain Tumor Social Media (through the hash tag #BTSM and https://x.com/BTSMchat) and soon found my way to Brain Cancer Canada (https://braincancercanada.ca/) as a 100% volunteer led national charity that raises and allocates funds to research into potential future therapies and cures.  I've joined as an ambassador on the Scientific Advisory Committee where I've found a unique place to match my education and career in Pharma with a team who raise funds to directly allocate to phenomenal research.

In the Scientific Advisory Committee, I've found a unique opportunity to review current cutting-edge research being planned by amazing scientists and clinicians.  It's been about learning the experimental designs and proposals that will one day lead to published journal articles and new developments we'll hear about in news stories in years to come.  The McMaster Biochemistry B.Sc. side of me is thrilled to read new research into topics that weren't even known about or written about in my textbooks, so it's been a fun way of continuing my education without a tuition bill.  I've been happy to use my 23-year career in generic Pharmaceuticals to predict how this early research could eventually translate into clinical trials and potential future therapies, while representing the perspective of patients and caregivers as the early research is explored.

On September 26th, Brain Cancer Canada will host their Annual Gala in Vaughan, Ontario, which is going to be a terrific opportunity to connect in person with inspiring clinicians and scientists and other members of Brain Cancer Canada along with others affected by brain cancer.  I look forward to a meaningful and powerful evening.  If what I've shared here about Brain Cancer Canada makes you wonder about donating to this fabulous charity, I'm happy to talk more about it and to help find answers to any questions you might have, or you can head right over to their donations page at https://braincancercanada.ca/donate/ to donate directly.  If you're interested in the Gala, tickets and sponsorship opportunities are over at https://braincancercanada.akaraisin.com/ui/bccgala2024.

Also in September, I hope to take part in what promises to be an impactful pan-Canadian Health Care Symposium, an annual event hosted by Canada's Drug Agency – L’Agence des médicaments du Canada (CDA-AMC, formerly CADTH as Canada's Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health).  I look forward to sessions on Real-World Evidence and designing suitable studies and trials to collect meaningful evidence in Health Care, Ethics in Health Technology Assessments, initiatives to support Drugs for Rare Diseases, and more.  You probably know about Health Canada as our regulatory agency that approves and regulates drugs and oversees health topics for all Canadians, such that the provinces and territories can deliver health care, but you might not have heard of CDA-AMC before.  They're a Pan-Canadian agency with a focus on evidence and analysis in providing advice and recommendations to health care decision-makers (https://www.cda-amc.ca/what-we-do).  You can think of them as sitting between Health Canada and our providers at the provincial and territory levels as more of a collaborative and open non-binding guidance to set the direction of Canada's health care products and services to best meet the needs at provincial and territorial levels.  

I'm excited to be able to contribute as a patient and caregiver, as a member of a patient-focused organization, and as someone with decades of experience in Generic Pharmaceuticals.  I'm finding meaningful ways of using my experience to help, while learning much more along the way.

In wrapping up this less formal blog post, I hope you leave with a sense of my enthusiasm about using my experiences to contribute in ways I hadn't thought possible when I first learned about my brain cancer.  I'm convinced that we all have opportunities in our lives to give back in many small and meaningful ways and I relish seeing it when others do similar.  I see many people in my life who give back through charities and local organizations, through community and faith-based groups and in areas with personal connections and interest.  Beyond the widely published literature and studies that show the benefits of giving back to others, I'm learning more through my own experiences about the immeasurable value we receive in return, and I see the same in the others in my life who contribute in many meaningful ways.  To all who contribute to the things that matter to you, you already have my thanks and admiration.  To those who want to contribute to something important to you but who haven't yet started, you have my encouragement in taking those first few steps.  I'm confident that by giving back we each gain in return, and it's just a wonderful thing.

Thanks again for reading!

Stuart