Blog

On the occasion of National Volunteer Week, Jo Ann Champagne, a volunteer at Palliacco, shares her journey and what it means to her to be a human presence to people in palliative care in a hospital in the Laurentians. Through her testimony she tells how volunteering can transform our view of life, the fragility of human existence and the value of just being present for someone.

Have you ever had the impression that it takes a brush with death to make one appreciate life? Isabelle Lavallée, 54 years old, from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, knows this feeling well. In the spring of 2025, she learned that her colon cancer was progressing -– yet again.  It was not the first time she received such news. She had confronted this illness three times before and thought she had beat it.

When Audrey Bouchard, a nurse from Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs, learned that her husband, Simon, had contacted Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), her life and that of her family were profoundly shaken.

How do you deal with the loss of a loved one who, by choice, has scheduled her own death?