We would like to congratulate Delia Cooper, the 2024 winner of the Michael R. Whelan Award! Presented to a resident of BC, this award is given annually to a member who best represents the values of volunteering and selflessness, advocacy and education, safety and health. Among her many accomplishments, Delia has been our BC CommUnity Connect lead for the past year, and is a long time member, donor and fundraiser for ImmUnity Canada. She was also a speaker in our patient panel at the recent Vancouver Education and Awareness Day. Congratulations on this award, Delia!
Read on to get to know Delia…
Name: Delia Cooper
Volunteer Position/s:
Volunteer Leader for BC Community Group virtually.
Speaker on Education Day in Fall 2024.
Volunteer in numerous public and patient partner organizations which give me opportunities to promote PID issues.
What motivated you to volunteer?
When I retired, I knew I wanted “give back” to the community for all the wonderful health care support I have received throughout my life.
I have been facilitating or acting as President and Past President for several organizations currently and in the past. I also lead 6 week Self-Management programs for Arthritis for many years and trained other leaders.
As a retired teacher, I know where my talents are so I wanted to use them to support the Immunity Canada community as well.
Tell us a little about what you’ve done as a volunteer.
Apart from volunteering with the Arthritis Society for many years and leading the Tri-Cities Arthritis Community Group (Hang Tough), I have volunteered with the Patient Voices Network organization in BC and the Michael Smith Health Research BC as a Patient Partner. I am also currently a member of the Public Advisory Network for all the Health Colleges in BC.
What do you enjoy most about volunteering for us?
I like the personal contact of community groups and I know the tremendous importance of them. Most people who are diagnosed with a new disease are very anxious about the medications or treatments they must take. A community group can put their mind at ease when they meet others who have already done that procedure or taken that medication and they look well and are strong and happy. That makes a HUGE difference for people. Sometimes you can even direct people to the right resources that they need, for example, when I was at the Hang Tough meeting last Monday, a young woman who was very unhappy with her health and all the diagnoses she was receiving sounded exactly like what I went through in my life. I suggested that she ask her doctor to investigate her immune system and then she said there were a lot of members in her family who were going through exactly what she was going through too. So you never know when and how you can help someone.
What is your greatest accomplishment as a volunteer and how did you go about achieving it?
I think there [are] two accomplishments as a volunteer. First, supporting the implementation of the Rapid Access to Consultative Expertise (RACE) program which enables GP’s and Health Practitioners in BC to access expert advice within approximately 10 minutes. This is especially important for patients with multiple co-morbidiities and complex conditions.
The second important accomplishment [is] ensuring the patient voice is included in all aspects of research, from the application to the reviewing the research for funding, from the completion of the project to the knowledge translation and implementation of the information. The patient voice must be included at all levels so that the research is feasible and important in terms of patient needs.
What have you learned about yourself from volunteering with ImmUnity Canada?
I am certain that I can support this community group because of my past experience. But I also realize the need for people who live in remote areas of BC. I am expanding my understanding of life away from the lower mainland.
How has volunteering for us had an impact on you?
I now look for PID patients everywhere I go in my volunteer world. And I look for ways that I can contribute to the knowledge of PID well. It is surprising to find people who lack a diagnosis who clearly have multiple symptoms and are struggling with the silos that that our health care system encourages. We need to ensure that the whole person is looked at.