A partner‘s cancer diagnosis led this woman to discover her passion for patient advocacy
Cheryl Petruk never planned to become a magazine publisher or the founder of a not-for-profit organization. She was working as a HR professional in 1991 when her husband, Eugene Petruk, was diagnosed with a rare slow-growing blood cancer that is in a group of blood cancers known as myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).
To support her husband and be the best possible caregiver, Cheryl learned everything she could about the disease, but it wasn’t easy.
Cheryl and Eugene talked to doctors, reached out to other patients and scoured the internet to find answers to their questions about this rare disease.
“Patient advocacy is so important when you’re facing a serious health care concern and you can’t be an effective advocate if you don’t have good information Cheryl explains. “I figured that if I had questions, there were undoubtedly others who
had the same questions.”
In 20l4, Cheryl and a group of others founded the Canadian MPN Network, a patient advocacy group that has become a primary resource for people impacted by MPNs. The organization provides information and helps connect patients and their caregivers with support groups. Cheryl served as the chair of the volunteer board for more than five years.
“Participating in a support group can really make a difference when you’re dealing with a serious health issue,” says Cheryl. “When you get together with other people, you don’t feel so alone.”
When Cheryl’s husband, succumbed to his disease in 2018, she might have chosen to walk away from the advocacy work she had been doing, but instead she doubled down. The Canadian MPN Research Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to funding research for MPN blood cancers in Canada, was established in 2018 and she went on to serve as the organization’s executive director for more than five years.
During this time, she had the chance to meet and help others impacted by MPN blood cancers and one of those people was Wendy Reichental. Wendy was approaching her 60th birthday when abnormalities were detected in her blood tests at an annual medical check up.
“I had no symptoms, so the cancer diagnosis was a complete shock,” Wendy says. “I was fortunate that it was caught early. I wanted to learn more about the disease, so I Googled MPN Canada, and this organization came up. I called and spoke to the executive director, and she became my lifeline. Cheryl and I have never met in person, but she has become a dear friend.”
Progress has been made with treatment of MPN blood cancers and even though there isn’t a cure, it can be controlled with long-term chemotherapy.
“Doctors have predicted that I’ll die with the disease, but I won’t die because of it,” Wendy explains. “You take it one day at a time. I am fortunate that I haven’t experienced hair loss or other more serious side-effects from long-term chemotherapy.”
In 2023, Cheryl stepped down as executive director of Canadian MPN Research Foundation and focused her efforts on Heal Canada, an organization she founded in 2018 that is dedicated to patient education and patient advocacy in a broader sense, not limited only to MPN blood cancers.
A year later, she asked Wendy to assist with a free magazine called E3 Advocacy Digital Magazine for Heal Canada. The magazine’s current issue is focused on navigating insurance and health coverage, a topic that applies to anyone who is dealing with a serious disease or illness. Wendy says that assisting with the magazine has given her purpose and allowed her to focus on helping others rather than becoming consumed with her own illness.
Patient advocacy has become a passion for Cheryl who found her life’s work because of her late husband’s cancer journey.
“I am enjoying what I do,” she says. “Helping people help themselves in their own health journey is very rewarding.”
This story was published by Montreal Gazette. To read the original blog post please click here.