Sexual health clinic in Thunder Bay to reopen and carry on legacy of late founding doctor

A sexual health clinic in Thunder Bay is preparing to reopen in August, nearly a year after the tragic death of its founder.

The Umbrella Medical Clinic was temporarily closed after founder Dr. Annabella Zawada died unexpectedly in October 2021.

Aldona Richard, one of the nurses at the clinic, said the team worked hard and explored a number of potential options to reopen the clinic.

"I think I can speak for everyone in terms of our passion for sexual health and knowing the impact that we had on our community," Richard said.

"That stemmed from Dr. Zawada. Being able to just honour her and carry on her legacy means so much to us. And it also helps us stay in our passion and doing what we love and bettering our community and the lives of our clients."

Zawada opened the clinic in September 2018. 

At the time, Zawada said she realized sexual health services in Thunder Bay were limited or difficult to access. She said access to transgender health care was needed, as well as more access to timely and emergency contraception.

The clinic's services include sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, HIV testing and prvention, birth control options, referrals for IUD insertions, and gender affirming care.

Clinic nurse Hillary Stezenko said there's a gap in the community for those services.

"The team here is really passionate about what we do and the services that we offer. Not being able to have that interaction with our community and provide those services over the last number of months has been really difficult," she said.

"We've seen, just outside the clinic space, members of the community that there is still that need for service and people have been struggling to access them in some cases."

The clinic is opening its phone lines and email address next week, with appointments beginning the first week of August.

News of its reopening was recently shared on social media.

"It's been quite overwhelming. We've had a huge positive response from the community," Richard said. "It's almost as though a lot of people had been waiting for this, which is nice to know we had everybody behind us and supporting us as we go through this."