Your support saves lives and offers hope
At Trillium Health Partners we care about every patient and it is thanks to the generosity from donors like you that we are building a healthier community, so that no one is left behind. Support from our donors means patients like Morgan have access to the quality health care they need to become healthier. Thanks to you, we can invest in new technologies and innovations, facility upgrades, breakthrough research and more, so that our health care teams can continue providing the highest quality of care now, and for future generations to come.
Thank you for being there for us when we need you the most.
Morgan’s Story
Inspiring hope through comprehensive care
When Morgan Bargent got sick, it upended every dream she had: marriage, kids, a steady 9 – 5 job. Breast cancer had no place in that vision.
As a healthy young woman with no risk factors or family history of disease, Morgan was shocked by her breast cancer diagnosis in December 2019. Even her health care professionals thought cancer was unlikely when she went in to have a lump checked, that was causing extreme discomfort, chest pain and fatigue.
Morgan had two lumpectomies (the removal of cancer or other abnormal tissue from the breast) at Trillium Health Partners (THP) and began a grueling 10-month journey to recovery which included visits to both Queensway Health Centre and Credit Valley Hospital for a combination of 10 chemotherapy treatments and radiation five days a week.
Small moments between different THP staff members, from surgeons to volunteers, played a huge role in her healing as she went through one of the most challenging times in her life. She recalls fondly the daily interactions with the woman operating the drink cart, who always provided comic relief and friendly conversation as she dropped off Ensure and Ginger Ale for the chemotherapy patients.
She also remembers what her surgeon, said to her before her first lumpectomy. “He was a wonderful man,” Morgan recalls. “He said, ‘We’re going to fix you, you’re going to be okay,’ and as corny as it sounds, it was exactly what I needed to hear… his positivity and support was amazing.”
As a triplet, Morgan was worried her sisters could also be at risk for breast cancer, so THP conducted very thorough genetic testing to see if Morgan had any DNA variants to indicate her sisters could also develop cancer. Thankfully she didn’t, which provided peace of mind that her siblings would be okay and that her partial mastectomy meant that the cancer was likely gone for good.
Morgan is now cancer-free, living in Etobicoke and pursuing her dreams as a performer with a renewed sense of purpose guiding her with Hope, her aptly named golden doodle, by her side. She acknowledges that while the journey was difficult, her path prior to her diagnosis wasn’t the right one, and now she is focused on living out her wildest dreams with a new lease on life.
To all of the THP staff members who crossed her path on this journey, from the social worker who helped her apply for grants to help subsidize treatment costs, to the dietitian who helped her choose foods that would mitigate nausea from the chemo and everyone in between Morgan says this, “thank you for seeing me not as a patient but as a human being.”
Your support, as a donor, is essential to our ability to provide life-saving, patient-centred care for thousands of patients in our community, like Morgan– who have their entire lives in front of them. From our patients, staff, physicians, and health care practitioners, thank you for ongoing generosity!