I’ve chosen to dedicate this Teal Diaries post to two amazing women who recently passed away, their legacies are something that I wish to make known and that I strongly admire. Although I never met them in person, Dr. Nadia Chaudhri and Julie Rohr had an impact on me and on thousands of others within the global cancer community. I will forever remain grateful to them for choosing to share their lives so publicly, for inspiring me, and ultimately for becoming such a positive part of my own journey with ovarian cancer. Nadia and Julie’s lives were tragically cut short, however before they passed on, they taught me so many lessons about what it is for us as human beings to face our mortality. Both women embodied qualities such as humility, resilience and strength of spirit, but above all they revealed to me something fundamental. They both demonstrated through example that we should always endeavor to treat each moment that we’re alive as precious. 

The Legacy of Dr. Nadia Chaudhri

Dr. Nadia Chaudhri was driven and passionate, a gifted academic as well as a wife and the mother of a young son. Just as the pandemic was beginning, she started feeling unwell and visited her doctor. Some of the issues that she reported to her physician were fatigue, lack of appetite, abdominal bloating and frequent urination. Nevertheless, it took Nadia months of personal advocacy and multiple referrals to different specialists to finally determine what had been causing her symptoms. In June 2020, at 43 years old, the Montreal neuroscience professor, was diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer. That fall, she went through chemotherapy but was told the following spring the cancer would be terminal. 

Nadia chose to share her life as the disease progressed and posted some of the most poignant moments of her journey on social media. She eventually gained over 150,000 followers on Twitter. While she was in the hospital, Nadia drafted a GoFundMe pitch to help fund travel for young scientists — particularly those who are marginalized or underrepresented in the field — to be able to attend the Research Society on Alcoholism’s annual conference. On the first day, her initiative raised $50,000 US. Soon after Nadia’s GoFundMe launched, Concordia University also set up a fundraiser in her honour. The Nadia Chaudhri Wingspan Award will become an annual scholarship to support neuroscientists from underrepresented backgrounds, including students who may face barriers related to systemic issues like racism, sexism or geographic origin.

Like thousands, I watched in wonder as Nadia accomplished more in her final weeks than most entirely healthy people would normally undertake in a year. From her palliative care bed, the beloved wife, mother, colleague and teacher rose awareness about ovarian cancer, the devastating disease that was gradually killing her. She even continued her fundraising for the Wingspan Award. She posted videos of her daily hallway “shuffle” and invited people to donate. Though Nadia disclosed the harsh realities of living with a terminal diagnosis—such as the angst she faced before telling her young son about it—she also shared pockets of wisdom and joy, including paintings she made, close-ups of flowers and pictures of her and her family.

Myself, I’ll always be grateful for the heightened public awareness Nadia was able to raise concerning ovarian cancer. “I am mad as hell that I was misdiagnosed for so long,” she tweeted this year on World Ovarian Cancer Day, May 8. “And mad as hell that there’s been minimal progress in the treatment of ovarian cancer.”

The Legacy of Julie Rohr

Julie Rohr was a young mother from Edmonton, Canada, she was living with retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma (LMS), a cancer of the soft muscle tissue. It’s one of those extremely rare cancers — only about one in one million people receive the exact diagnosis Jule did — which means there’s little funding for research or treatments. When they first discovered her cancer medical experts informed her that she would be lucky to live five years. However Jule ultimately lived six years beyond her initial diagnosis, making the most of each moment. As a cancer patient, she endured several major surgeries in addition to many grueling treatments, an ominous list that included radiation, ablation, and chemotherapy.

Julie’s love of live and her constant hope and positivity made her well-known in Alberta and throughout Canada; she was treasured, especially within the cancer community. Even when periodic tests would show that her cancer had spread or returned, she remained a force of nature and still devoted her time to encouraging others facing the disease. Julie’s cancer advocacy and powerful words often made the local or national news, in addition she had thousands of followers on social media.

“Even though I have been through many surgeries, radiation, chemo and all the rest, cancer hasn’t (and can never) take our spirits, can it? We all make the choice, every day, to look for the good in life. To build one another up, even on the hardest days.” 

Julie Rohr was just 38 years old when she died