Repairing the World (Sheila Kussner and the Power of Empathy)

This is the story of a champion of cancer treatment and care, Sheila Kussner, and her best-known achievement, Hope & Cope, a pioneering, peer-based support service for cancer patients. Sheila also raised tens of millions of dollars to create the oncology department of McGill University. But as this biography explores, fundraising only scratches the surface of the character and deeds of this remarkable figure. A survivor of bone cancer that claimed a leg at age 14, Sheila Kussner has been a visionary in transforming the way cancer is researched and treated, and an indefatigable friend to anyone in need of support. Repairing the World delves deeply into Sheila’s story, to help us understand how someone so publicly and privately influential emerged, and how empathy has been her defining motivation. The reader learns of the personal challenges and crises that she confronted and overcame, and why her determination to improve support for cancer patients, by harnessing the experience and empathy of cancer patients themselves, was so revolutionary on a global scale.