The Women’s Health Research Foundation of Canada Inc., (WHRFC), has had another very challenging year as have many charitable organizations in Manitoba. COVID-19 was identified in Canada in early 2020 and Manitoba was placed under lockdown shortly after our Dance For Your Health 2020 (DFYH 2020) fundraiser on March 5, 2020.
Despite the cancellation of in-person fundraising again this year, the WHRFC was able to raise $6,000 through its loyal Target Mail responders and continuing Corporate Supporters including Red River Cooperative Ltd.
With support from the provincial government, The Foundation provided five Scholarships again this year, four to full-time graduate students and one to a part-time graduate student, all researching women’s health projects in diverse units at the University of Manitoba.
- Mimi Brown is an MSc student in Social Work, Supervisor Dr. Kendra Nixon and Project Title, The WHOLE Leader.
- Kerri-Ann Bochen is an MSc Student in Nursing, Supervisor, Dr. Marnie Kramer, Project Title, Moving beyond barriers: Understanding the Experiences of Women Who Transitioned to Cardiac Rehabilitation and Subsequently Withdrew Prior to Completion.
- Oludolapo Balogun is an MSc Student in Community Health Sciences, Supervisor, Dr. Nathan Nickel and Project Title, Prevalence of Mental Disorders Among Pregnant Women in Social Housing in Manitoba.
- Amr Abostait is an MSc Student in Pharmacy, Supervisor, Dr. Hagar Labouta, Project Title, Safe Nanomedicines During Pregnancy: Targeted Lipid Nanoparticles to Specific Fetal Organs.
The Foundation’s Scholarship to a part-time graduate student researching women’s health went to Liz Harvey who is a PhD student in Applied Health Sciences, Co-Advisors, Dr. Pattie Thille and Dr. Sandra Webber, Project Title, On Becoming a ‘Good’ Physiotherapist: Exploring Professional Identity Formation in Physiotherapy Students in Historically Under-Represented Groups.
Nineteen applications were submitted from different departments including Applied Health Sciences, Community Health Sciences, Kinesiology and Recreation Management, Pharmacy, Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, Psychology, Social Work, Physics and Astronomy, Immunology and Nursing, showing the diversity of women’s health research needed.
Other awards provided by the WHRFC in 2022 included an award in the Elementary category at the MSSS for the project entitled “Are we eating right?”. In the Senior category two projects were awarded which were entitled “Young extracellular vesicles as a revitalizing agent for age-associated disorders” and “Using deep-learning neural network to predict Alzheimer’s disease”.
Chantal Rytz, a PhD student in medical sciences from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary won the WHRFC Silver Award for women’s health research at the Canadian National Medical Student Research Symposium, a national poster competition held annually at the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Her Project Title was “Serum Estradiol Levels and Cardiovascular Risk Associated with Gender-Affirming Hormone use in Transgender Women: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis. She was nominated by Drs. Tara Beattie, Celina Villaruz and Sabrina Adams.
Please check out our web site for current and future activities of the WHRFC www.whrfcinc.com.
