Breast Cancer Navigation Nurses, Caring Spirits
Congratulations to Shawna Bond and Dorothy Yada, Breast Cancer Navigation Nurses at Victoria General Hospital, recipients of two recent Caring Spirit awards for incredible patient care! Your wonderful care made a lasting difference to one patient who donates annually in tribute to you and has honoured you again with Caring Spirit awards and donations toward Breast Cancer Navigation. The donor’s generosity will directly help to continue and improve patient care. Thank you.
Victoria General Hospital is home to the region’s Breast Health Centre, where essential screening and diagnostic procedures are performed. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in BC. Advanced equipment in this area improves the likelihood of early detection and more positive outcomes.
Two in five Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. With the right equipment, doctors can quickly diagnose the disease and give quality care that dramatically improves their chances for full recovery. Last year, medical teams at our hospitals provided exceptional and compassionate care to 2,471 people with cancer.
At Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals, patients with cancer are treated by a team of experts who use a combination of surgery, cancer medication, radiation, chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. All are proven to increase remission, extend life or improve quality of life.
Royal Jubilee is the host hospital for the BC Cancer Agency. The BC Cancer Agency refers patients from across BC to both our hospitals for diagnosis, consultation with oncologists and therapy, providing seamless care for those fighting cancer.
The average hospital stay for someone in Cancer Care is a week. While patients receiving medical attention for cancer can be cared for throughout our hospitals, those requiring chemotherapy and radiation therapy stay at Royal Jubilee Hospital’s Patient Care Centre. Here, staff are specially trained to administer chemotherapy, respond to emergencies and manage side effects from medication.
The Patient Care Centre is home to the only unit on Vancouver Island where patients with cancerous tumours can receive a treatment called radiotherapy. This therapy can treat tumours and prevent recurrence after surgical removal. Three lead-lined rooms in the Patient Care Centre are also used for radioimmunotherapy — a new form of chemotherapy that targets specific sites in the body at a molecular level.
Help us give patients a better chance for early detection of cancer, and a more positive outcome for patients and their families.
The Victoria Hospitals Foundation would like to thank the Caring Spirit donor for these generous gifts and congratulate Shawna Bond and Dorothy Yada, Breast Cancer Navigation Nurses at Victoria General Hospital, on the well-earned distinction! Service like theirs immeasurably improves quality of life for patients on Vancouver Island.
