Montreal woman starts fundraiser to help solve mysterious medical disorders

Shawnea Roberts has had painful rashes all her life. As a child she had allergies to all kinds of things — baby formula, diapers, creams, antibiotics and almost every form of metal.

“You know those are your prime high school years, and you want to look and feel good and that’s the opposite of how I felt,” she told CTV News.

Doctors struggled to find the right diagnosis for her. Within six months of giving birth to her first daughter, she was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma.

“A random chest pain in the middle of the night sent me to the hospital,” she said. “To sit there in that room. You’re just going through the motions, you’re totally numb.”

After the chemotherapy and cancer treatments, there were signs of the cancer's return, but the biopsies were inconclusive. 

Eventually she came across Dr. Donald Vinh, who researches genetic disorders at the McGill University Health Centre. He began to look into her case to see if there was a genetic reason for her illness.

“She came to me with the question of ‘what does she have?’” said Vinh. “We’re looking for that needle in a haystack, and we have a few high candidate needles, but that’s just the beginning.”

While Vinh is still searching for clues as to what is afflicting Roberts, she is spearheading a fundraising campaign through the MUHC Foundation in an effort to raise $2.5 million for a centre to help Vinh and others search for other mysterious disorders.

Vinh estimates thousands of Canadians suffer mysterious illnesses that have no obvious diagnosis.

“It’s important to note that Shawnea is raising money not for Shawnea, but for many other people in a similar situation.”