In March of 2025, Cameron Field, 59, of Burlington went to his local hospital for a persistent foot infection. Within hours, doctors delivered news no one wants or expects: acute myeloid leukemia, a fast-moving blood cancer.
“It was like I got hit by something large,” says Field, remembering the moment he received his diagnosis. “Emotionally and mentally, I was absolutely floored in ways I could never have imagined.”
Field was soon transferred to Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre (JHCC) in Hamilton, a facility he had never heard of but would come to trust with his life.
JHCC is the only hospital in south-central Ontario equipped to treat all types of cancer, serving a regional population of more than three million people and managing nearly 630,000 patient visits a year. It is one of just three centres in Ontario offering comprehensive stem cell transplants. For patients like Field, that depth of expertise can mean the difference between uncertainty and hope.
After researching the hospital’s hematology program from his bed, Field began to understand the level of care available to him. “My reading made me feel like I was in the right place for what I had. There was some comfort that, if I’m gonna take a real run at this and maybe come out of it in one piece, I’m right where I belong.”
What began as a hunch, drawn from research done in a hospital bed, became something he lived out day by day. “They’re very transparent, very supportive and always hopeful,” Field says. “I truly felt like I was getting the best care in the world.”
Following seven and a half weeks of intensive chemotherapy, Field learned his brother was a 100 per cent match for a stem cell transplant, a step his care team called essential for the best possible outcome.
Throughout his treatment, Field felt the impact of individualized care. “I always felt like they had my back,” he said. “Whatever I needed, it was literally a call away.”
Care like this depends on donor support. The negative pressure ward where stem cell transplant patients recover, reducing infection risk during the most vulnerable stage of treatment, exists because of donor funding. So do the tools, technologies, training and research that keep JHCC at the forefront of cancer care regionally and across Canada.
Now in remission, Field recently completed a 5-kilometre run in Burlington to raise funds for JHCC, directing his fundraising toward the hospital’s current priority: a surgical robotic system that gives oncologists greater precision during cancer surgery. “The only reason I’m alive is because of you,” he said of his care team.
His story is a reminder that life-changing cancer care and the generosity of donors work together, giving patients across the region a fighting chance.