The Examined Life Journal essay: Endangered

Excerpt from my essay "Endangered" published in the Examined Life Journal, Volume 11 (2024) "We fly to Florida in early January, fleeing Canada’s snow and ice. Two days later, my partner in life and travel sits beside me on the outdoor patio of Mulligan’s Beach House overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Azure-blue sky borders the saltwater, which sunlight refracts and resolves into multi-layered shades of turquoise. At the horizon, a delicate ribbon of periwinkle haze shimmers. Maybe it’s an ordinary day for most people here. But for me, it’s a joyful re-awakening, as if I’m meeting myself again after a [...]

By |2024-02-24T21:09:51+00:00February 24th, 2024|Covid-19, Publication, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments

A Return to Writing

One of the great joys for me this year was a return to focusing on my own writing. Like many others,  the pandemic played havoc with my sense of time and connection these past three years. Fortunately, my involvement with the CNFC board helped me maintain my sanity and links to the Canadian writing community. That's not to say my words were unread during that time. After winning the 2020 Penguin Random House Canada MFA Prize for best nonfiction book proposal, I completed my memoir in 2021, and it went out on submission via my wonderful agent. If only [...]

By |2024-01-03T18:39:10+00:00December 20th, 2023|Publication, School, Writer|0 Comments

Canadian Blood Services Profile

Still thankful 33 years after transplant, Toronto woman now helps others. "During my time in hospital, I received 157 units of blood,” she says. “Each unit represented a blood donation from someone I didn’t know. Those transfusions kept me alive during treatment, so supporting the work of Canadian Blood Services to facilitate blood and stem cell donations across Canada is a no-brainer." Thanks to Canadian Blood Services for helping me celebrate the 33-year anniversary of the bone marrow transplant that cured my leukemia and saved my life. The procedure was a last-ditch Hail Mary play after all other treatment [...]

The Globe and Mail: Organ donation op-ed

Skip the mall this Christmas. Your organ-donation consent is the best gift you can give   'Tis the season for gift shopping. That time of year when we flock online, a Pavlovian response to slick advertising. We search shopping malls and stalk special one-day-only sale racks, spending hours seeking the perfect gift. But what if we didn’t have to search? What if we already carried the perfect gift within us? Less than one-quarter of Canadians have registered to donate organs, but 90 per cent of Canadians say they support organ donation. Presumed consent is a potential solution to increase donors, [...]

By |2023-10-15T21:38:28+00:00May 10th, 2021|Publication, School, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments

National Post Excerpt: I became a human chimera

How my sister's cells attacked my body, and changed my life. "It would be another 25 years before I learned about blood tissue, cells, genes and DNA. Before I would understand that I’d become a sort of human chimera. Like the fire-breathing creature from Greek mythology — with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail — my body was no longer just my own. I was host to my sister and myself." I knew it was a medical Hail Mary play — a first-of-its-kind procedure in Canada, with an eight per cent chance of success. It was 1988 [...]

By |2023-10-15T21:40:26+00:00July 10th, 2020|cycling, Publication, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments

Winner: 2020 Penguin Random House MFA Prize

I am honoured to be the winner of the 2020 Penguin Random House MFA Prize for best nonfiction book proposal. "Margaret Lynch, who graduated in May from the University of King’s College with her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction degree, is the winner of the 2020 Penguin Random House Best Nonfiction Book Proposal Prize. Lynch, a Toronto-based storyteller who writes about people, places, and plights, won for her proposal for Transformed: When My DNA Changed, So Did I, her memoir of her journey to “become a better person” after a rare leukemia invaded her body when she was just [...]

By |2023-10-15T21:40:56+00:00June 26th, 2020|MFA, Publication, School, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments

CMAJ Blog Post

Déjà Vu in the Time of Covid-19 One Monday morning not long ago, I attended my yoga class. We stretched and twisted, breathed and meditated amidst a soundtrack of calming music and the instructor’s soothing voice. It was late January 2020, when we still took for granted our ability to move freely in and around the world. Afterwards, I chatted with another yogini. Standing close together, we discussed the first reported Canadian case of COVID-19. The National Microbiology Laboratory had confirmed the presumptive case two days earlier. We were concerned, but we agreed the problem could be easily contained. [...]

By |2023-10-15T21:41:33+00:00April 24th, 2020|Covid-19, Publication, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments

Launch Party: untethered Issue 5.1

On January 9th, 2020 I was honoured to share the stage with so many talented writers for the launch of untethered issue 5.1 at the Monarch Tavern in Toronto. What a party! Thanks to intrepid editors Stephanie and Nicole for curating this fabulous issue and organizing this fantastic event! Love that cover artwork by Sarah Graham too! Thanks to untethered for the photos! Back to Complete List of Blog Posts:

By |2023-10-15T21:44:03+00:00January 10th, 2020|Publication, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments

How I Created My Writer Platform

I’m writing this memoir for those who need to see someone standing strong farther down the road they’re travelling. In February of this year, I stood transfixed in my living room listening to my Camino story on CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition. I hardly recognized my own voice, which sounded like it had received the audio equivalent of airbrushing. But even though I knew the story, I was almost in tears. I had written something that, to me, felt remarkable. Then came the annoying voices in my head: How will I ever write anything this good again? And did I really bare [...]

By |2023-10-15T21:44:38+00:00November 1st, 2019|Publication, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments

Giving back to the place that saved my life

Leaving a Legacy (From the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation 2019 Annual Report) Margaret Lynch was the first in Canada to receive an experimental bone marrow transplant at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Today, she is healthy and thriving, dedicated to giving back to the place that saved her life. Margaret has cycled in The Ontario Ride to Conquer Cancer nine times, to raise funds for cancer research. “I know firsthand that supporting The Princess Margaret will further cancer research and get us closer to a world without cancer,” says Margaret. Margaret was only 30 years old when she was diagnosed [...]

By |2023-10-15T21:46:13+00:00September 26th, 2019|cycling, Publication, Survivor, Writer|0 Comments
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