nanny angels take moms, kids under their wings

Uzma Imran is sitting up in bed in her North Toronto home, recovering from the breast cancer surgery that followed six rounds of chemo to stop the spread of the disease, which had progressed to her lymph nodes.
Her 7-month-old daughter is sleeping downstairs, but “at this time of the day, she sleeps for about five minutes,” says Imran. As if on cue, Iqra arrives upstairs in the nanny’s arms.
Iqra is put on the bed, slightly out of reach from her mother, who started treatment soon after her child was born and who still can’t lift her.
What’s surprising is that the nanny, Lourdes Banggot, 30, doesn’t work for the family.
She’s part of a volunteer service called the Nanny Angel Network, nannies who volunteer their own time to provide up to five hours a week of free care for mothers undergoing breast cancer treatment.
When Banggot, who works full-time for a nearby family, is asked why she volunteers, she says, “Being a nanny, you don’t have the time. You just have the heart.”
The service was founded in October by Audrey Guth, 55, who owns a nanny service and is herself a survivor of the disease. Funding for training and a part-time volunteer coordinator comes from Rethink Breast Cancer, a national charity that funds innovative breast cancer education, research and support programs.
Imran heard about the service from Princess Margaret Hospital and, although she was new to the country – she came with her husband Imran Chaudhay, a diplomat, from Pakistan in the fall – she didn’t think she’d need it.
“I thought we could handle it, be brave and everything. But in the middle of the first round I realized that it was really bad.” She found the chemotherapy debilitating and says it almost killed her.
She also wasn’t ready to give up caring for her child, who was born to the couple after 14 years of trying. “I didn’t want to give her to anybody,” says Imran. But when Banggott arrived and held Iqra, “I could hear my kid laughing. And that was the best part of it.”
Guth says the idea for founding the service came in 2008, when she was undergoing breast cancer treatment at Princess Margaret Hospital after finding a lump in her breast.
Although she had four grown children at the time, she noticed how many mothers with young children were undergoing treatment.
The nannies have CPR and first-aid training and go through a seminar to prepare them for the psychological and physical effects of treatment.
They also learn about the disease themselves.
Guth says many nannies don’t come from a culture where breast health education is important.

They “ignore it, or just never check,” she says. “So we saw a huge opportunity to give them the

… education so they could learn about it and be ambassadors in their community.”
Since the launch last fall, the service has expanded to Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver and has been used by almost 40 families, surpassing Guth’s target of 25.
“It’s exceeded our goals on the one hand,” says Guth.
“But on the other hand, I wish we had a lot less families.”

The Toronto Star
Mon May 10 2010
Page: E1
Section: Entertainment
Byline: Patty Winsa Toronto Star