West Island Cancer Wellness Centre

According to its website, “The West Island Cancer Wellness Centre is a registered charity dedicated to offering comprehensive cancer wellness care and support to anyone experiencing cancer – either having it themselves or supporting someone with cancer. Our mission is to empower individuals living with cancer by offering them compassionate support and thorough information across the 7 Pillars of Cancer Wellness. These pillars encompass Physical, Emotional, Spiritual, Informational, Systemic, Practical, and Social aspects of well-being. Our free wellness programs complement traditional medical practices and offer personal support, coping mechanisms, education, and hope to those with cancer, helping them gain control, strength, and reduce isolation.”

Executive Director Debbie Magwood says that she founded the centre in Kirkland 18 years ago out of sheer necessity.

“I saw this massive need for a safe space where people suffering from cancer and their families could receive support. As a cancer survivor myself, I was uniquely positioned to address that need.”

Interestingly, she didn’t see herself in the role of Executive Director at first.

“I am a social psychologist by training, and I wanted to be frontline with the participants. As we evolved, someone said to me, ‘you have to take the Executive Director role – this is your passion, your life, your belief.’ Since then, I have been extremely happy and feel very blessed to be able to do the things that we do.”

What Magwood and her staff do is empower those living with cancer to take charge of their wellbeing.

“When people come to us, they go through a self-administered assessment. Then they get a readout that indicates areas where they might need help, sit down with one of our nurses to dig deeper into the data, and develop a customized plan to employ our resources during their cancer journey. As we have over 3,000 hours of programming each month, there are many options. I like to say that we provide the ingredients and whatever each person makes with those ingredients is mostly up to them.

“We meet people when they are at a very difficult and uncertain time in their lives. The center is full of joy, laughter, and hope, so someone might walk in feeling petrified and lost and alone, but they definitely don’t walk out that way.”

To prove the point, Magwood and her peers recently asked residents to fill out a quick survey.

“We had them rate their experience by choosing between five emojis, and we were totally blown away by the response – the majority picked the happiest emoji, and we are very proud of that.”

While residents might be bound by a common illness, they often differ in their support needs and wants.

“Some people are more comfortable in groups and want an open forum discussion, while others are happy in groups, but also want a speaker and information. Some of our groups are more psychoeducational, some are professionally led, some are peer led, and some are simply supportive. And then there are those who only want one-on-one counseling.”

As with most charitable organizations, funding remains a major challenge.

“If you don’t have the money to operate, you don’t operate,” Magwood states bluntly. “The real challenge is being able to offer a gold standard of care with limited resources. All our programs and services are gifted from professionals who offer their expertise to us as volunteers. If we had to pay for what we offer, the cost would be roughly $2.5 million annually. And while we are incredibly fortunate to have the amazing volunteers that we have, we still have wait lists for everything, and we keep registering new people every day.
There are only so many hours in the day, and there are only so many volunteers. It is beyond heartbreaking having to turn people away.”
Despite those issues, she notes, the rewards make it all worthwhile.

“If one of the staff gets bad news or is having a rough day, I tell them to sit at reception for an hour and see the difference they are making. Understanding how much more challenging things would be for these people if we didn’t exist puts things into proper perspective.”

While situated in Kirkland, more than 50 per cent of the facility’s users come from outside the area.

“The West Island community is fabulous. Not only for its degree of affluence, but also because it is a respectful and open-minded community. However, what people might not know is that we are accessible across all of Canada through our remote services, and anyone can contact us from anywhere and join what we are doing online – live streaming, counselling, and more.

“Going forward, my biggest hope is that we will keep getting these amazing professional volunteers involved, reduce our waiting lists, and continue to offer the standard of care that we believe in.”

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