Lymphedema Association of Ontario  |  Lymphedema Matters 2020 Volume 2

Message from President • Webinars • World Lymphedema Day  | AGM  |   WLD LAO Activities

LYMPHEDEMA ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO

2020 E-VOLUME 2

Message from the President

Dolores Steinwall  |  April 22, 2020

Dear LAO Members, Donors, Sponsors and Friends,

It’s a grey day today, not very inviting, a day to reflect and try to organise next steps. The words that run through my mind are

 COVID-19 “you make a grown-up cry”

We are all experiencing new challenges, trying to balance work, home and family, as we unite to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To support and engage you during this time, all of our efforts are being focused on webinars to help keep you healthy, informed and safe.

I also wanted to send a challenge out to our members. We would like to hear your stories and what steps you take to manage your lymphedema and your health. We are open to anything of interest to the lymphedema community. We will select a story to publish in our next newsletter. Maximum 200 words, please submit by June 30th, 2020.

Call for Content: 

Surprising, interesting or ordinary, we would love to hear from you, your stories and thoughts. 

Please submit by June 30th a 200 word or less story to be featured on Social Media or our E-Newsletter.  

Webinars

Since the Sept 17th AGM, we have now completed five webinars, two were focused on Diet & Nutrition and two were focused on self management of Lymphedema. We have another webinar on Self Management next week.

We have also partnered with our Corporate members to offer our Therapists & Fitters Product information. The first of these was from Paradigm on Pneumatic Pumps offered to our professional members. We will be offering a webinar on this product to our Individual members as well. We have many new webinars scheduled for May & June and hope you will join us. These will provide opportunities for our Therapist and Fitters to get in depth information on the products that are available. We are also scheduling webinars for our members on products.

Registration information will be sent out in the coming weeks.

World Lymphedema Day

I am very pleased to report that our March 6th, 2020, World Lymphedema Day event was a great success.  The LAO had never undertaken an Awareness Event that involved so many locations and volunteers. We had over 90 people come forward as volunteers and we were able to host a presence to raise awareness for Lymphedema in 15 locations. Our grateful thanks go out to:

Our volunteers were very generous in donating their time to this event to make it a great success.

The lucky winner in our draw for a LAO Individual membership for the year was Beverly Hills.

We also want to thank the Mayors of Toronto, John Tory, Dave Ryan, Pickering, Jeff Lehman, Barrie and Diane Therrien, Peterborough, Frank Scarpitti, Markham for declaring “World Lymphedema Day” in their cities.

Next year will be bigger and better and we will apply our learnings to the planning for next year.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

The Board of Directors have set the date for the 2019-2020 AGM as 6 to 8 PM, June 11th, 2020. Please make a note of this date in your calendar.

Reports from the Board

Tony Wight

Board Director, Awareness & Secretary

Charlotte Schultz

Board Director, Advocacy

World Lymphedema Day LAO Activities

This year World Lymphedema Day – March 6, 2020 – fell on a Friday. During this week, members of the LAO were involved in several lymphedema awareness activities across Ontario. Also, Toronto, Pickering Barrie and Markham issued Proclamations recognizing the significance of the Day and declaring it “World Lymphedema Day” in their municipality.

We were involved in two separate events in: one at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the other at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre:

Florence Winberg Education Series – Managing Your Lymphedema – Sunnybrook/Odette - March 3, 2020 

This event featured a Patient and Caregiver Panel including Charlotte Schultz, Sara Wadell and myself from the LAO as well as and Barbara and Maria Plummer, RN. Each spoke from the perspective of their own personal involvement with lymphedema. Sara and Charlotte shared their experiences as primary and secondary lymphedema patients, respectively and Tony from the perspective as a former lymphedema caregiver for my late wife. A lively Q & A session followed with the panel interacting and others present interacting with the attendees.

After the panel, a Lymphedema Self-Management session was conducted by Ann DiMenna, Physiotherapist, which also featured Charlotte as the ‘patient’ in wrapping demos. Thereafter Jean LaMantia, Registered Dietician, gave an informative presentation on Nutrition and Lymphedema.

Information tables were also present including one by the LAO. There was much enthusiasm at our table for what we were distributing including our recently released “Patient” card on what every patient should know about lymphedema.

 We would like to thank Juzo, LNR, BSN Medical, Medi and 3M for their generous donations of information pamphlets, product samples and other items that are useful to lymphedema patients.

The evening was attended by over 100 patients and caregivers and was very successful in meeting its objectives. 

Tony Wight – March 2020

From left to right Maria, Sara, Jean, Tony, Charlotte, Barb, Ann, Kirsten.

Lymphedema Association of Ontario
262-2869 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON M8X 1B3 Canada
416.410.2250 | 1.877.723.0033 | info@lymphontario.ca

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