{"id":110589,"date":"2026-06-26T15:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=110589"},"modified":"2026-06-26T15:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:46:08","slug":"what-cancer-taught-this-brock-prof-about-the-power-of-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/06\/what-cancer-taught-this-brock-prof-about-the-power-of-community\/","title":{"rendered":"What cancer taught this Brock prof about the power of community"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of working alongside an international team to bring the Ocean Equity Index<\/a> to life, Jessica Blythe encountered an unexpected obstacle: cancer.<\/p>\n

In early 2025, the Associate Professor in Brock\u2019s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) was in the midst of revisions to announce the new open-source tool on the cover of Nature<\/em>\u2019s print edition when she began six months of chemotherapy treatment.<\/p>\n

What followed \u2014 navigating academia and ongoing research while faced with a serious illness \u2014\u00a0changed Blythe\u2019s perspective and inspired her to share her experience more broadly.<\/p>\n

Blythe celebrated the publication<\/a> of the Ocean Equity Index in January. Months later, she penned a personal reflection: \u201cWhat cancer taught me about being a colleague<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The piece was published in Nature<\/em>\u2019s Research Communities Highlights on June 15 as part of the \u201cBehind the Paper\u201d blog series. The series offers readers a backstage view of the research process with insight shared from the journal\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n

Blythe took the opportunity to normalize talking openly about cancer and sick leave within academic environments. She says in a global health crisis of rising cancer rates, everyone can benefit from more frank conversation and clear guidelines for navigating situations like hers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went into chemo, there were lots of resources available to me about my medical journey, my mental health and social supports, but there was little written about the professional space,\u201d she says. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have to try to figure it out by guessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blythe is now using her experience to help others understand how sick leave affects academics, as their work is so often collaborative and interdependent.<\/p>\n

When she learned she had to start cancer treatment, for instance, Blythe was not only trying to see a three-year international research effort through to publication, but she was also serving as Graduate Program Director in the ESRC and supervising students.<\/p>\n

She credits Brock\u2019s Health Management and Wellness Team<\/a> for providing \u201cexcellent support\u201d as she went on leave. The structural limitations of an institution, as well as personal experience of illness, will shape how engaged or distanced an individual chooses to become during a leave, she says, and professional communities should be prepared to accommodate various circumstances.<\/p>\n

But efforts to do so successfully require more open dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK to talk about cancer with your colleagues, in professional spaces and in print,\u201d says Blythe. \u201cThere seems to be an unspoken taboo because it feels too personal, but it\u2019s not just personal \u2014 it crosses over into the professional because of the collaborative ways in which we work.\u201d<\/p>\n

She describes the Behind the Paper article as \u201ca love letter\u201d to the colleagues who offered different but essential forms of support so that she could focus on healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin academia, we have long-term collaborative projects and responsibilities that can\u2019t be put on pause for six months because that would disrupt too many other people\u2019s work,\u201d says Blythe. \u201cI needed my academic community to carry pieces of the workload for me \u2014 it was the only way I got through. Their support took a huge mental load off my shoulders so I could focus on treatment without a constant worry or guilt about projects I was holding up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since her return to work, Blythe \u2014 who has completed research on empathy<\/a> and its potential to support sustainability efforts \u2014 says she is carrying forward the notion that empathy can also bring lasting benefits to professional environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis experience has really taught me a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cGoing through it, I was the recipient of a lot of empathy from my colleagues. Building on our research on empathy, I\u2019ve learned that engaging with empathy is not only professional, but it\u2019s a great way to be a colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of working alongside an international team to bring the Ocean Equity Index to life, Jessica Blythe encountered an unexpected obstacle: cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":110590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,7,1,38],"tags":[296,2262,522,7417],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110591,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110589\/revisions\/110591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}