Doctor shortage leads to late cancer diagnosis for young Ottawa woman
CTV
A 21-year-old Ottawa woman is sharing her story after her lack of a family doctor led to a late stage cancer diagnosis.
A 21-year-old Ottawa woman is sharing her story after her lack of a family doctor led to a late stage cancer diagnosis.
In January, Josephine Crone, a student at Trent University, was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an aggressive type of blood cancer.
"From one day to the next, I was worried about doing well in school and if that boy liked me back and suddenly I was worried for my life," Crone said.
Looking back, she wonders how things might have been different if she had a family doctor.
"I think about that a lot actually," said Crone. "I had lost about 40 to 50 pounds in a short amount of time and no one really noticed. I wondered what would have happened if I had gone in sooner and if I had access to regular checkups."
After her family doctor retired, her parents say they searched for years without success. Eventually, it was a campus doctor that lead to her diagnosis.
"With stage four cancer, the treatment has to be aggressive," said her mother Nathalie Schiebel.
