“I was sweating, and I thought to myself, this is going to be serious, because of the way he was talking to me. It sounded serious.”
That day, as he absentmindedly ran his hand over his neck, Gilles felt a small lump. He didn’t think it was anything to worry about. But his wife encouraged him to see a doctor.
He quickly got an appointment with Dr. Charbonneau at Hôpital Charles-Le Moyne. He went without worrying too much, convinced it wasn’t anything serious.
But from the very first moment, the tone changed.
“Gilles, no, no, no, it’s not just a little lump. It’s serious.”
Gilles Fortin immediately realized that something was wrong. His doctor asked him to cancel his planned trip to Florida. One test followed another. The very next day, Gilles found himself in the operating room for further investigations.
Then the diagnosis came: cancer. Aggressive cancer.
The tumor was inoperable. Gilles would have to undergo radiation therapy.
Gilles remembers that time. The trips back and forth to the Hospital. The difficult nights. The questions constantly swirling in his head.
And above all, those words that never left him:
“I always had that damn word in my head: tumor, cancer, tumor…”
Five years later, as he recounts these memories, the emotion is still just as vivid. In the midst of this ordeal, his trust in his doctor brought him immense comfort. Gilles has never forgotten these words from Dr. Charbonneau:
“Gilles, we won’t let you down.”
And when he finally got answers about his illness and the treatments ahead, something changed. He knew he wouldn’t be going through this ordeal alone. A gratitude that came from the heart.
“It set me free. And then I knew that, since I knew where we were headed, I could trust the doctors.”
Now in remission, Gilles fully appreciates how lucky he’s been. He speaks emotionally about the people who cared for him, his doctor, the nurses, and everyone who supported him with skill and compassion.
He’s convinced that the promptness of his care and medical advances played a decisive role in his story.
“If my doctor, modern medicine, and Hôpital Charles-Le Moyne hadn’t been so advanced, I might not be here talking to you today.”
Already a donor to the Fondation Hôpital Charles-Le Moyne before his illness, Gilles continues his commitment with even greater conviction.
He knows what it’s like to wait for a diagnosis. And he hopes that others can receive the same care and attention that he did.
That’s why the project to build the new care unit on the 6th floor of the hospital’s North Wing is particularly close to his heart. Among other things, it will increase the number of diagnostic tests performed at the hospital.
“The sooner you find out, the sooner you’ll be treated.”
“You don’t have to be rich to give. Every little dollar counts toward a good cause.”
Today, his gratitude is turning into an act of generosity for the patients who will come after him. His message to donors is simple but full of sincerity:
“Please, don’t stop giving.”
