Shannon was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer in 2019 at the age of 40, before learning of her familial hereditary cancer genetics as a carrier of a BRCA1 mutation. She immediately connected and began volunteering with Ovarian Cancer Canada. She has worked as a volunteer, educator, and fierce advocate in a variety of public and health care settings to spread awareness and provide input from a patient’s perspective about Ovarian Cancer and hereditary and familial cancer genetics. She assists those newly diagnosed in properly advocating for themselves and connecting with support services while navigating the ovarian cancer landscape. She also contributes and provides her lived experience input to many different projects and events in a variety of private, research, clinical and public areas including AstraZeneca, University of Ottawa, University of British Columbia, Abbey Retreat Centre, OCC’s Survivors Teaching Students (STS) program, social media, print and radio platforms. In 2022, alongside her fellow Ovarian Cancer Canada patient partners, Shannon proudly lobbied the Federal Government of Canada encouraging further investment and funding for desperately needed ovarian cancer research and to continue to grow Ovarian Cancer Canada’s groundbreaking OvCAN research program. She proudly co-lead’s OvCAN’s Patient Partner in Research Program, providing mentorship and support to fellow patient partners in the advocacy field.