This morning something pretty awesome happened. I got to enter a room filled with superheroes! These are amazing superheroes who do their superhero work all day long, cleverly disguised as ordinary people.

I was asked to show up at 9:00 am on the first Wednesday in July to meet the person who would escort me to a secret location. Thankfully no blindfold was needed, no large sack thrown over my head.

As we reached our destination, the door opened and I recognized many of the people inside. There were nurses, administrators, researchers … a whole team of people dedicated to cancer research at The Ottawa Hospital!

This was a meeting of The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre’s Clinical Trials Superheroes (not their official name!), and I’d been invited to share my story with them!

About a month ago their team leader contacted me. She’d heard me speak at the big fundraising breakfast for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation in May, and she wanted to connect with me.

I was excited to meet her, not only because I was curious to see what she had in mind, but also because I’ve been trying to understand the Lung Cancer landscape in Canada and had loads of questions about research. She answered many of my questions and then set up another meeting so I could learn even more.

As I got to know this inspiring team leader, I quickly realized she is amazing! She wakes up early in the morning to come up with new and better ideas for how she and her team can do their superhero work.

They strike me as a humble group. You won’t typically see them in their superhero costumes. They work hard day in and day out, many of them behind the scenes, caring for cancer patients and helping to develop better treatments for us. And I was given the privilege of telling them my story, how a clinical trial – THEIR CLINICAL TRIAL – saved my life.

A little over three years ago, I had run out of treatment options. I was coughing non-stop, weak, unwell. It looked like cancer was gaining the upper hand. Then the clinical trial. Everything changed. Three years later here I am!

A clinical trial at The Ottawa Hospital changed our family’s story! A new investigational drug extended my life two years: long enough for another drug to be ready when I needed it! In this way, that clinical trial is still at work, continuing to extend my life. Four and a half years after diagnosis, I’m still on treatment, still going strong and still so very thankful!

Of course, many of them already knew my story – at least bits and pieces of it – because many of them have played significant roles in it. In this room were people who filled out paperwork for me to enter the clinical trial, listened to me and listed all my many side effects, and did all the ongoing work (like booking scans and more paperwork) to keep me in the trial. There were nurses who extended kindness as they interacted with me, drew blood and ran tests. I went into the hospital at least twice every three weeks for almost two years, and I received excellent care.

Not only do they provide excellent professional care, but these superheroes actually do care. I’ve seen them go out of their way, above and beyond, to take care of people, and I know that is why they do their job.

These superheroes, cleverly disguised as ordinary members of the cancer centre’s clinical trials team, save people’s lives on a regular basis!

It was such an honour to be in the room with them. I’m grateful for the opportunity to thank them for their hard work and the difference they have made for me and my family. So many memories these past three years, so many milestones our family has been able to share. Because of the grace of God and because of superheroes like this awesome team!

Here is a picture of some of them right after I spoke this morning … and if you look very closely, you might even catch a glimpse of one of their superhero capes!