Hi, I’m Sharlene Gill and I am a medical oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Centre. I’m thrilled to be a part of the Partners in Discovery blog but I have a confession to make — this is my first time “blogging” (is that a proper verb??) so it should be interesting. Who knows, maybe I’ll even start “tweeting” after this!
A bit about myself and how I ended up as a medical oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency… I am a Vancouver girl, born and raised, and after completing my undergraduate studies in pharmacy, I started medical school at the University of British Columbia. At that time, I also took on a part-time job working as a chemotherapy pharmacist at the Agency and loved it. I found oncology fascinating and felt there was a strong team approach to delivering cancer care.
After graduation, I finished three years of internal medicine residency and then two years of medical oncology training at the Agency. I am grateful to all my teachers (who are now my colleagues!) and to all my patients who helped me learn how to become a better oncologist. Because I was also interested in research, I did some additional training for a couple of years in the United States. I completed a gastrointestinal (GI) research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and a Master’s degree from Harvard University in Boston. At the end of the day, I knew I wanted to come back to work in my home province so was thrilled to be recruited to the BC Cancer Agency in 2003. I have been here ever since!
Sharlene
