18 — Sunday, August 4, 1991 - North Shore News

HIGH PROFILES

NEWS photo Neil Lucente

JOANNA TUDAN-SAINBERG was one of three Lower Mainland women to receive Health and Welfare
Canada’s national volunteer award for her work with cancer patients.

ETERNITY RINGS
14 carat 10 point
FROM $159.00

ANNOUNCEMENT
| “We've changed our name

but the quality is still the

same.’

hey I}: ded

* FREE STRAND OF PEARLS

phat

Jewels Inc.

* FRESH WATER
PEARL NECKLACES
FREE WITH EVERY
PURCHASE OVER
$100 LIMIT 1 PER
PERSON.

CUSTOM MADE
JEWELERY

BULOVA
WATCHES

OPEN TUES-FRI. 10-5:30pm
SAT. 10-Spmn

984-4691
1414 LONSDALE AVE.
NORTH VANCOUVER

N. Van volunteer
honors for her

He THE average volunteer
can be described as a foot
soldier of good works, then
Joanna Tudan-Sainberg is a
three-star general.

By Evelyn Jacob

News Reporter

Last month this brave trooper
flew to Ottawa to pick up the
Canada Volunteer Award, a na-
tional honor recognizing her
unflagging work with cancer pa-
tients.

In 1984. breast cancer was
diaznosed in) Tudan-Sainberg, a
discovery that shattered her life.
Instead of becoming a victim, by
year’s end she had set up her own
information ling from home for
cancer patients and their families.

She says she came up with the
idea after being turned away by a
number of volunteer groups.

“When I first started out | went
to eight different groups to volun-
teer my time and [ was refused by
all of them,’ explains the divorce-
ed mother of two. 1 told them f
could do almost anything, but not
regularly, because of my health.
Well, that wasn’t good enough for
them.

“Just imagine if you were told
you had terminal cancer and then
had doors slammed in your face.
These people (door slammers) are
handing them nails for their cof-
fins.**

iy others gave them nails for
their coffins, Tudan-Sainberg
breathed fife back into them.

She developed a product study
determining what kind of
substances were safe for cancer
Patients receiving radiation and
chemotherapy and spent five years
researching and compiling a 162-
page study critigizing Canada’s
health care system, entitled.
Canada’s Health) Plan and its
Woes,

Three of Tudan-Sainberg’s sug-
gestions — one of which calls for

5 spd. transmission,
double wall bed, H.D.
Battery, starter and
much more.

4 door, automatic,
power windows,
power locks, truck
rack and much more.

‘TOYOTA. TOYOTA TOYOTA TOYOTA. TOYOTA. TOYOTA

NAME: Joanna Tudan-Sainberg
RESIDENCE: North Vancouver
OCCUPATION: Volunteer
AGE; 48

FAMILY: Divorced: two children

the establishment of ethical boards
for patient complaints in hospitals
— are now being considered by
the B.C. Royal Commission on
Health.

Her report has also received the
backing of the Medical Ethics
Board of Canada at McGill Uni-
versity. And political Icaders —
namely U.S. Senator Edward
Kennedy — have expressed inter-
est in her recommendations on
ways to save Canada's health
plan,

Hundreds of Lower Mainland
school children can thank
Tudan-Sainberg for developing
the Nourishing Dreams with Hope
fundraising effort, which in-
troduced hot lunches in schools.

To date, Tudan-Sainberg has
started an incredible 27 communi-
ty projects world-wide and raised
$600,000 to help keep them afloat.

She is now recording her life’s
work in a book, which could be
out this December, health permit-
ting.

On this balmy summer's day
Tudan-Sainberg greets her visitor
with a smile, but looks tired. She
explains that she has had to take
some morphine for her pain. Not
the usual dose, just enough to
keep the nagging discomfort at
bay. She wants to remain lucid for
the interview.

Offering her guest a glass of
cranberry juice, she settles into a
chair on her North Vancouver
apartment patio with the aid of a
cane. Pulling out several photos
of herself taken before the cancer
set in, Tudan-Sainberg launches
into a passionate sermon about
medical incompetence.

Three years before she knew she
had breast cancer, Tudan-Sainberg
discovered a lump in her right
armpit. Her doctor, she says,

mB, 9950

PLUS FRT. & PDi