There was only one way eight-year-old Connie Cameron could fight back against a disease so insidious she would endure many surgeries and hospitalizations: investigate what was happening so she could gain some control over what was later diagnosed as Crohn’s disease.

“I needed to know in detail (what was happening),” Cameron says of her illness. “I maintained control in that sort of way, being the one to advocate for myself.”

Cameron’s journey as a pediatric patient at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto became a guiding light along her professional path to nursing. It was a path that brought her back to the same hospital where she says staff were such a positive presence that she thought of them as more than just caregivers.

Their collective embrace in moments of vulnerability was a gift Cameron has since spent her professional life paying back. She chose to become an RN at SickKids, and her passion and thirst for knowledge is propelling her into roles of leadership that touch the lives of patients and their families.

“They made (me) feel like part of the team...almost like…family,” she says.