Dawn Barker – Patient Partner
It was June 2017, exactly two weeks before my 45th birthday, when I heard the words “it’s cancer”. I honestly think I zoned out, and my life flashed before my eyes. Worry overcame me about my children, family, hopes, and dreams. Also in the back of my mind was the fact that two years prior, cancer took the life of my dear mother at the age of 62. Then, two years after my diagnosis, I lost my father to esophageal cancer at the age of 74.
These three impactful moments that thrust me into survival mode also birthed something incredible: a warrior spirit and an awakening of the power of one’s voice. You don’t have to hold prestigious titles to be a changemaker. You just need to carry a passion from within. It’s that very passion in me that has opened many opportunities to share my journey with breast cancer and my role as a secondary caregiver to my ailing parents. These major life events demand your attention and almost force you to build a new muscle called advocacy. Advocating can be the difference between good care and exceptional life-saving care.
Those who have lived through experiences like cancer are the very ones who should, in my words – “live and tell.” Much like in school, we had “show and tell,” making room for us to live and tell can lead to improved systems and policies. We are the experts in what we have had to live through!
Co-creating the Every Breast Counts Virtual Hub was my first patient engagement experience and one that I am very proud of. The hub, in partnership with The Olive Branch of Hope, is a web page by Black women and for Black women in Canada who want to learn more about breast cancer or are on their own breast cancer journey. I am thankful to Women’s College Hospital, specifically Dr. Aisha Lofters, for her vision of the Every Breast Counts project and for allowing me to use my voice, experience with breast cancer and my desire to pay it forward to encourage and inspire the next generation.
Since then, I have been a member of the Black Health for Black Women Planning Committee and co-author on the 2023 University of Toronto Journal of Public Health (UTJPH) publication release on “Every Breast Counts: Enhancing the Care Experiences of Black Women Along the Breast Cancer Journey”, a Patient Advisory Council member for various research projects and most recently, a patient partner with the Women’s Age Lab Team. I have also made a number of media appearances covering and supporting the many initiatives at Women’s College Hospital.
Researchers can benefit significantly from patient partners by ensuring that clinical trials and medical advancements correlate to the humanness of the diseases that impact our lives. Patient engagement in research and clinical care is a gateway and a bridge that connects pain to purpose and purpose to meaningful changes.