Finding family and hope close to home: How personal care helped a teen beat cancer
Patient Story
Mel Austin remembers the little things that made her cancer treatment a little more bearable.
Sometimes it was conversations with nurses, who asked her about school and what she had planned for her future. Other times it was the easy drive to Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN), instead of her usual trek to Hamilton for care.
Once, it was as simple as getting a bag of chips from a kind nurse – a gesture that made all the difference on a tough day.
Mel, now a third-year psychology student at Trent University, was just 17 when she was diagnosed with leukemia. As a pediatric cancer patient, she was put under the care of McMaster Children’s Hospital.
Most of Mel’s treatment was done in Hamilton, but she had some additional care at the Pediatric Group of Ontario (POGO) satellite clinic at WRHN, just minutes from her home.
That’s where she met Deb Crann, a nurse she calls “one of the best people in the world.”
“During one of my treatments, Deb was telling me about her favourite chips and I told her I’d never tried them,” Mel recalls. “Then, the next time I came in, there was a bag of her favourite chips (sour cream and bacon) waiting for me on my chair.
It makes me emotional thinking about it now. It’s just incredible how attentive the care team is. I never felt like just a patient when I was there. I was a person that meant something to them.
We were family.
A scary diagnosis, and the fight that followed
Mel was in Grade 11 when a long-lasting bout with strep throat and mono caused her doctor to order additional tests. Initially, they thought she might have an autoimmune disease.
Hearing she had cancer hit Mel and her family hard, but it also provided the answer they had been searching for – and a plan of attack.
“I was quite devastated for a while; I was super healthy, I played hockey, it was like ‘why is this happening to me?’” Mel says.
Hearing cancer is never easy, but at the same time, it wasn’t this unknown anymore. Within three or four days, I was starting my treatment.
Processing the journey
After countless chemotherapy sessions, blood transfusions, and spinal taps, Mel was cleared of cancer in the summer of 2025.
She rang the bell at McMaster in August after her last official treatment, then, she went to the POGO Clinic at WRHN @ Midtown to ring the bell there and celebrate her milestone with the local care team that meant so much to her.
“I was with them for over two years and they were like family,” Mel says. “They wrote me a little song, they made me a sign, they all clapped for me when I came out. It was really special to ring the bell at both hospitals because my care at Mac was incredible too.
Those moments brought out so many different feelings. You’re relieved and happy that it's over, but there’s also so much grief for everything you went through.
Small moments and meaningful connections
Among those at the POGO Clinic watching Mel ring the bell was Deb, the nurse who once brought the teen a bag of her favourite chips to try.
Deb was touched to hear that Mel remembered that moment. To both of them, it was more than a bag of chips; it was a gesture that symbolized a deeper connection.
“As nurses, we don’t always realize how special these little moments can be for patients,” she says. “Just to have been part of Mel’s journey and be able to have eased the burden – even just for a little while – that means the world to me.”
Deb started working at WRHN in 2002. Through her role as POGO Satellite Nurse Coordinator, she’s seen her share of tough moments – and joyous ones, too.
She says bell ringing ceremonies, like the one Mel had, are “the best days.”
“Mel was one of the strongest patients I’ve ever looked after,” Deb says. “I know she’s going to do great things in the future.”
Turning personal experience into purpose
Since her diagnosis, Mel has been an advocate for kids care and an active spokesperson for WRHN Foundation’s Scotland’s Yard campaign. The campaign, which includes the annual Scotland’s Yard Road Hockey Classic, aims to bring more pediatric services to WRHN.
By sharing her story frequently at events, Mel has helped raise millions for vital equipment, including a PET scanner expected to go live in 2027.
“I’ve learned how important donations are in making an unimaginable situation seem a little more manageable,” Mel says. “It’s a comfier chemo chair on a hard treatment day, it’s all the other equipment you don’t think about, until you or your child needs it.”
With her treatment behind her, Mel is working towards a degree in child psychology.
After realizing how therapeutic it was to talk about her struggles and triumphs as a cancer patient, she’s intent on helping other kids find their own coping strategies when facing tough diagnoses and treatment.
“I've seen so many kids go through what I went through, but a lot of them are too young to voice how they're feeling,” she says.
If I can use my experience to help other kids and families, that’s what I want to do.
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