Diane Rogers

After surgery, radiation and chem-otherapy, science does not have a lot to offer cancer patients and their families. “Within three months I was in, through, and out of the health system,” said Gerri Dickson, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 1995. She had surgery but rejected the other two treatments. “It is arrogant […] Read more

A woman left her doctor’s office thinking she had “hot chicken” disease. The baffled nurse later clarified that the patient had Hodgkin’s disease. Usually miscommunication is not as blatant, but it is a problem between doctor and patient, said one doctor speaking at the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology meeting recently in Saskatoon. “People will […] Read more

Around the world this year, one million women will die of breast cancer. Next month over 500 people from 40 countries will gather for a world conference on the disease in Kingston, Ont. The conference will not only include scientists and their research but also women’s organizations, cancer survivors and health professionals. At the end […] Read more

MANITOU SPRINGS, Sask. – Farmers should get out of their rubber boots and into their suits to sell their story to urban audiences, says a lawyer. Unless the majority of Canadians understand the value of common farming practices, they will pass laws limiting them, said Julian Bodnar. At the Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes annual meeting last […] Read more

KINGMAN, Alta. – Jean Haie can fly a plane. She has augered seed into the trucks for six springs and combined last fall. Not bad for someone who doesn’t know how to drive a standard. “I’m mechanically challenged,” said Haie. Although she has a computer she prefers to draw her farm plan on paper following […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – Winnipeg’s Centennial Library has one and a half shelves of books on animal rights but only one book on animal welfare, says Shelly CurŽ. As one of the people ensuring Manitoba’s 208,000 schoolchildren learn more about agriculture, she said that’s a problem. She also found it disturbing that the coloring book being […] Read more

It is a sign of the times that farm families have to be prepared with first aid for any emergency, says the executive director of Alberta’s branch of St. John Ambulance. Michael Cearns said health-care cuts by governments everywhere mean people must be ready to deliver help immediately rather than wait for medical experts. That’s […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – The three pictures of children and adults involved in sex showed Manitoba Women’s Institute members just how far pornography has gone. Some of the women were shocked, others were grim as they examined the evidence during a workshop at their annual meeting here last week. Two Winnipeg police officers told them that […] Read more

In 1990 the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada said farm families were not getting the child care they wanted or needed. A survey the group had done found families needed a seasonal child minder service that had flexible hours ,especially during the peak seeding to harvest seasons, and that brought a caregiver into the farm […] Read more

BIRCH HILLS, Sask. – Lee Ann Tessier stopped having favorites among “her girls” when she couldn’t remember all their names. But her husband Vic still has a special one in their herd of 84 cows, 29 yearling heifers and two bulls. “When you treat them like pets they get spoiled” and then they take liberties […] Read more