Listener mail: Dr. Vera Peters, and "Slob Ice"
Karin Wells's profile of Vera Peters, a pioneering Canadian doctor who radically changed the way breast cancer is treated. Her work made lumpectomy an option for women with early stages of the disease....
Karin Wells's profile of Vera Peters, a pioneering Canadian doctor who radically changed the way breast cancer is treated. Her work made lumpectomy an option for women with early stages of the disease.
Deborah Ross, Pickering, Ontario:
Brava, Dr. Vera Peters. An amazing woman; I am glad her story is being told. This is how things change, with personal interest, quiet defiance and passion.
Sara Chorney, Calgary, Alberta:
Enough with the queen and all the men on our currency, let's finally put an accomplished Canadian woman like Vera Peters on one of our new bills!
Yvonne Heinbuch, Hawkesbury, Ontario:
(Ms. Heinbuch was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma in 1968, and was treated by Dr. Peters.)
Dr. Peters was so kind and so competent that it was easy to be confident. When I finished the treatment, I was warned that I could develop leukaemia, from the amount of radiation I had received. Not wanting to waste valuable time, my husband and I decided to take a year -- and the $6,000 we had saved for a house -- and travel around the world. All of the male doctors wore their frowny faces and advised against it, as I really was quite unwell and down to 87 pounds.
Dr. Peters told me to put aside enough money to fly home if I lost 5 more pounds, and to be sensible about staying within in Europe, Australia or New Zealand. Needless to say, I have had a good life, a great husband and daughter. I've just been diagnosed with severe heart problems - probably from the radiation. When I got the news, I had a flashback to Dr. Peters, holding both my hands in hers, looking me straight in the eye and saying, "You're going to be just fine".
I cannot begin to imagine how many people had their lives made better by Dr. Peters. I'm glad I got the chance to say this.
We also received this note, from Andrew Danson Danushevsky, Change Islands, Newfoundland.
Out my window on this tiny island in the North Atlantic, slob ice packs into the snow-covered rock islands across the tickle from my house. Out another window, my wood pile is covered with a cement-like mixture of ice and snow. My woodstove crackles and the dog snoozes by the woodheat as the winds churn up the winter sea.
My smartphone and computer crackle with world events almost as quickly as the wind blows in real time. I prefer to listen to the wind. I can't turn it off.
To find our more about slob ice, we talked to Jack Troake, long-time fisherman and sealer, now retired, in Twillingate, Newfoundland.
Deborah Ross, Pickering, Ontario:
Brava, Dr. Vera Peters. An amazing woman; I am glad her story is being told. This is how things change, with personal interest, quiet defiance and passion.
Sara Chorney, Calgary, Alberta:
Enough with the queen and all the men on our currency, let's finally put an accomplished Canadian woman like Vera Peters on one of our new bills!
Yvonne Heinbuch, Hawkesbury, Ontario:
(Ms. Heinbuch was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma in 1968, and was treated by Dr. Peters.)
Dr. Peters was so kind and so competent that it was easy to be confident. When I finished the treatment, I was warned that I could develop leukaemia, from the amount of radiation I had received. Not wanting to waste valuable time, my husband and I decided to take a year -- and the $6,000 we had saved for a house -- and travel around the world. All of the male doctors wore their frowny faces and advised against it, as I really was quite unwell and down to 87 pounds.
Dr. Peters told me to put aside enough money to fly home if I lost 5 more pounds, and to be sensible about staying within in Europe, Australia or New Zealand. Needless to say, I have had a good life, a great husband and daughter. I've just been diagnosed with severe heart problems - probably from the radiation. When I got the news, I had a flashback to Dr. Peters, holding both my hands in hers, looking me straight in the eye and saying, "You're going to be just fine".
I cannot begin to imagine how many people had their lives made better by Dr. Peters. I'm glad I got the chance to say this.
We also received this note, from Andrew Danson Danushevsky, Change Islands, Newfoundland.
Out my window on this tiny island in the North Atlantic, slob ice packs into the snow-covered rock islands across the tickle from my house. Out another window, my wood pile is covered with a cement-like mixture of ice and snow. My woodstove crackles and the dog snoozes by the woodheat as the winds churn up the winter sea.
My smartphone and computer crackle with world events almost as quickly as the wind blows in real time. I prefer to listen to the wind. I can't turn it off.
To find our more about slob ice, we talked to Jack Troake, long-time fisherman and sealer, now retired, in Twillingate, Newfoundland.