Vote now and help spine research at VGH
Last year, a terrible accident turned Jill Munro’s world upside down. While skiing at Whistler, she was hit from behind by a snowboarder. She was urgently transferred to Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and under the care of Dr. Brian Kwon, orthopaedic spine surgeon, was told that she had a crushed vertebra.
Dr. Kwon is the Canada Research Chair in Spinal Cord Injury and Associate Director of Clinical Research at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (iCORD). As an attending spine surgeon at the Vancouver Spine Program in VGH, he took care of Jill for one year.
Each visit, Dr. Kwon sat with Jill to go through her X-rays and answered all her questions. “Dr. Kwon has been my number one support, he always saw light in the situation,” says Jill. “He involved me in every decision making process of my treatment and reassured me that I was in good hands.” Gradually, Jill started to look forward to her follow-up appointments at VGH and eventually was able to return to work full-time.
Giving back to health care research
During the year that Jill was bedridden recovering from her spinal fracture, she passed much of her time online entering contests, one of which was the Lay’s Canada Do Us a Flavour contest to create the next potato chip flavour. Her suggestion for the flavour “Creamy Garlic Caesar” was selected as one of four finalists out of over 630,000 entries across the country. She is the only contestant from BC, and if she wins, would receive $50,000 and one percent of future sales of the new chip flavour.
Jill has many ideas on how to spend the money if she wins – including paying off her student loans – but one thing she knows for sure is, “I want to help support Dr. Kwon the same way he did for me, and make a difference for those who might not be as lucky as me to recover from their spinal injuries.” After hearing that her donation to Dr. Kwon’s spinal injury research program would be matched by another donor through VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, Jill immediately offered to give a portion of the proceeds from her winnings to support spinal cord injury research. “I had a strong team of people behind me the whole way through my recovery, I would love to help in any way that I can”, says Jill. “This would be a perfect ending to my story and it would bring me great joy to support Dr. Kwon’s research to find a cure for spinal cord injury.”
To support Jill Munro, text “VOTE” to 101010 and select the “Creamy Garlic Caesar” flavour or vote online at lays.ca/flavour.