"Patient Partners" a poem by Bev Riediger, Patient Working Group Member

Patient Partners

By Bev Riediger, Patient Working Group member*

We are patient partners and we have arrived.
We are not a fashionable, flavour of the month.
We are here to stay.
We are paving the way for the next generation.
We are patient partners.
We have met some scary smart, young cancer researchers who have never met or spoken to a living, breathing cancer survivor or patient.
We are not lab rats.
We want researchers to know and recognize us as living, vibrant human beings.
We are not just tissue samples or cells in a test tube.
We are cancer survivors, patients and caregivers.
We are patient partners.
We have come a long way since we were only regarded as cells in a Petri dish or numbers on spreadsheets.
We have lived experience that cannot be gained by any other way than from hearing the words, “You Have Cancer.”
We have become emotionally and mentally stronger.
We are not super humans.
We are just like everyone else, except we have received at least one cancer diagnosis.
We are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, babies and grandparents.
We are young, old and middle-aged.
We have hopes and dreams for the future.
We have gained experiences from the past.
We can provide options and insights that may hold the keys needed to unlock the cure for cancer.
We know cancer intimately.
We are patient partners.
We are being sought after by cancer researchers.
We are being incorporated into research teams.
We are being invited to research meetings and conferences.
We are being listened to and consulted, perhaps for the first time.
We are patient partners.
We have a special bond that ties us together.
We have shared experiences, feelings and goals.
We have been to hell and back, sometimes alone and sometimes with support.
We are patient partners.

*Bev Riediger, a member of the MOHCCN Patient Working Group from Winnipeg, has loved to write her entire life.  She enjoys participating in weekly creative writing workshops and interacting with other amateur writers.  Now retired, Bev has a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science and Public Administration.

Bev was first diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2005 and again in 2020.  She has been a CancerCare Manitoba volunteer since 2006, when she became a regular contributor and member of the editorial board of Our Voice, a patient run CCMB publication.  She is currently a CCMB Patient Advisor and a Patient Partner of the Health Services Research Lab at CCMB’s Paul Albrechtsen Research Lab.