Across Canada, chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke are on the rise. Today an estimated 1.6 million Canadians are living with heart disease or the effects of a stroke and another 3 million are living with diabetes. As chronic disease prevalence increases with age, the coming “grey wave” of seniors is expected to place an increasing strain our health care system. Prevention has never been more important.

In the Spring 2016 edition of Fraser Health’s Healthier You magazine I talk to a Chilliwack, B.C. family working to put their children on the path of health for life. By making simple lifestyle changes, they are ensuring their kids can live lives free of chronic disease from their first years to their golden years.

Have a read of the article, Great Beginnings, and take away 10 simple tips for improving your own family’s health now and preventing chronic disease later.

In the Spring 2016 edition of Fraser Health’s quarterly magazine, Healthier You, I spoke with Burnaby Hospital Respiratory Therapist Darwin Chan.

He shared his passion for his career helping patients from their first breaths to their last. He described the incredible diversity of his patients and their care and how respiratory therapists are an integral part of health care teams across the spectrum from acute care in hospitals to home health and community respiratory services. He also talks about the growth of his field and in patient populations battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

You can read his story here, or listen to him share his passion for giving his patients the gift of breath in this video.

Stay tuned for more stories from the front-lines of BC’s health care system.

In the most recent edition of Fraser Health’s quarterly magazine, Healthier You, I spoke with Royal Columbian Hospital ER nurse Anna Abaya.

She shared her inspiring career journey and detailed how she helps patients overcome trauma and get their lives back. The connections she makes are often amazing. She described the shock of meeting one patient she brought back from the brink of death later walking the hospital halls. And the joy that she and her patient shared as they reconnected and gave thanks for a life-changing moment.

You can read her story here, or listen to her share her passion for emergency care in her own words in this video.

Stay tuned for more stories from the front-lines of BC’s health care system.

I’m delighted to be working with Fraser Health as a senior communications consultant.

As a former newspaper reporter, I now engage in journalism with a call to action: improving the health of British Columbians. Specifically, I’m working to better the lives of the more than 1.6 million residents who live in the Fraser Health region via public health education and awareness campaigns.

Patient-centered care is a cornerstone of BC’s health care philosophy. Fraser Health believes even the smallest gesture matters when it comes to humanizing and personalizing patient care.

A few months ago, we published our 2015 Year of Caring series to highlight the exceptional, yet everyday actions of our front-line staff. These unsung heroes demonstrate our core values of respect, caring and trust, making transformational connections with their patients and clients. We were honoured to share their stories.

Have a read and stay tuned for more stories from the front-lines of BC’s health care system.

While travelling in Asia on a media fellowship last year I spent time in Seoul, South Korea reporting on international education for The Province. In between interviews I had time to explore the city. I was captivated by Seoul’s urban exotic charms: ancient palaces in view of skyscrapers, neon megamalls encircled by rustic food stalls, and most of all the city’s round-the-clock street carnival of shopping, eating and carousing into the early hours. Explore the sights and scenes of the city with a read of my latest travel piece, Exotic Seoul: Ancient Palaces to Neon Modernity, published in The Vancouver Sun, with photos in this gallery.

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Asia on a media fellowship which included a stay-over in Hong Kong. The city revealed itself to me alternately as chaotic and calm — in  exploring its fascinating districts, I took care to balance the nerve-jangling yang of urban street life with yin-restoring interludes in peaceful city parks. I was at once overwhelmed in the human crush of Kowloon, and transported by the tranquility of Diamond Hill’s Chi Lin Nunnery. Overcome by the clamourous nightlife of Lan Kwai Fong and lulled by a lazy escape to Lamma Island. Have a read of my latest travel piece, The Yin and Yang of Hong Kong, published in The Vancouver Sun, with photos in this gallery.

Nearly half a million students in B.C. public schools were kept out of class in the first weeks of September 2014 due to the ongoing teachers’ strike. Yet some 10,000 pupils in B.C. schools did start their school year on time — the difference is these were students registered in certified B.C. offshore schools abroad.

There are currently 42 of these provincially-approved institutions located in China, Korea, Thailand, Egypt, Qatar and Colombia, each staffed with B.C.-certified teachers teaching the B.C. curriculum to foreign nationals. The schools issuing Dogwood diplomas upon graduation and net B.C.’s Ministry of Education more than $4 million in revenues each year, yet few B.C. residents are aware of them.

In my latest three-part series for The Province, I explore the phenomenon of B.C. offshore schools, focusing on a new crop of schools that have sprung up in Korea.  In part two, the series also looks at recent trends in international education here in B.C. public schools, where foreign students who move to study in local schools now contribute $139 million a year to strapped school district budgets. And in part three, I examine how B.C. and Canada both fall short in creating a truly reciprocal international education system, as we send so few of our own students abroad on study exchanges.

Funding for the series comes courtesy of a media fellowship from The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, sponsored in part by Cathay Pacific Airways. Have a read and gain a new perspective on the education sector in our province.

I’m delighted to have been selected by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada as one of their Media Fellows for 2014.  The APF is an independent think-tank on Canada-Asia relations, headquartered in Vancouver. This fellowship, funded in part by Cathay Pacific Airlines, will allow me to travel to South Korea later this year to conduct research for a report on B.C.-Asia international education. I’ll be examining in particular the close ties between British Columbia and South Korea and how the flow of students between these two countries informs each country’s educational system, economy, and cross-cultural understanding. Stay tuned for links to these stories later this year.

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Morocco and was fascinated by its unique mix of the modern and mystic, tradition and technology. Already one of the most open Muslim societies, Morocco is rapidly liberalizing. In cosmopolitan Casablanca, female joggers in shorts and tank-tops share the streets with women fully veiled in abayas and niqabs. Desert hotels in Merzouga so remote that they give directions via GPS now offer Wi-Fi in rooms. Elderly seers in Marrakech’s famed Djemaa el Fna square take breaks from telling fortunes to answer their cellphones. Have a read of my latest travel piece, Cellphones and Sand Dunes: Morocco’s Enticing Contrast of Traditional and Modern Cultures, published in The Vancouver Sun, with photos in this gallery.

B.C. Without Borders ebook now available

I’m delighted to announce the publication of my new ebook, “B.C. Without Borders: 50 British Columbians Leading the Fight Against Global Poverty.”

This book began back in 2008, with a Jack Webster Foundation-sponsored fellowship to Africa to report on CIDA-assisted human development projects in Rwanda and Mozambique.

That experience sparked a passion for international development stories that led me to create and run a blog called B.C. Without Borders for The Province newspaper. The blog, which chronicled the touching stories of average citizens working abroad for social change, ran for four years from 2008 to 2012 and garnered an award nomination.

The best of those stories are now collected and updated in my new 2014 ebook, “B.C. Without Borders: 50 British Columbians Leading the Fight Against Global Poverty.” In it, you’ll read of a North Vancouver woman who has fought to change lives in Tanzania while fighting her own cancer. You’ll hear the story of a family whose son was murdered and who are planting gardens and growing crops for Zambians in his memory. And you’ll learn how a former B. C. RCMP member was so heartbroken by the crimes against children he had to investigate that he created a charity to help rehabilitate Cambodia children who have suffered sexual exploitation.

The ebook is now available on Amazon, Kobo, and iBooks for $4.99. I encourage you to have a read and be inspired by the incredible work these Canadians are doing to end global poverty and help citizens in the developing world imagine and build better futures.