We will all likely be touched by cancer in one form or another – it’s a scary reality. Dr. Sharlene Gill, a Vancouver-based cancer specialist, researcher, and Professor of Medicine, shares inspiring learnings from her 20 years of experience looking after people with cancer – bearing witness to the universal fear associated with a diagnosis of cancer, as well as acts of remarkable courage and major scientific advancements in the treatment of cancer. By approaching cancer with a perspective grounded in awareness, empowerment and action, Dr. Gill believes we can not only reframe our narrative of cancer to one of hope and control, but also ultimately improve our outcomes with cancer. Dr. Sharlene Gill is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a Medical Oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies at BC Cancer – Vancouver.  She received a Bachelor’s of Science in Pharmacy followed by her medical degree (MD) from the University of British Columbia in 1996, and then completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. Dr. Gill subsequently undertook a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) and a Master’s of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA). In 2011, she spent a year as a Visiting Professor at the Sun-Yat Sen University Cancer Centre in Guangzhou, China.  More recently, she graduated with an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina in 2017.