“How can I help?”
It’s a question cancer patients get asked a lot. Although well-meaning, the onus of decision making can add additional stress to an already stressful situation.
That’s where ApotheCare comes in.
The first-of-its-kind registry in Canada allows those going through a cancer journey to register for the things they really need, while giving loved ones a way to meaningfully help.
The creator, Tenille Corbett, is going through her own cancer journey.
“I was wondering how my family and friends could continue to support me in my journey living with stage four uterine cancer,” Corbett told Global News.
“The questions kept coming: ‘How can we help?’ ‘What do you need?’ I really didn’t have an answer for them or a way to give them an opportunity to support and show up for me in a way that I needed.”
Story continues below advertisementShe enlisted the help of her husband, who is a website developer, and went to the community to find ideas for things that people could actually use.
The website now has thousands of things to register for and also includes acts of service, like walking the dog or child care, as well as charities of choice for those who have a registry.
“We wanted a way to speak to people to give and receive in the way that they felt was most important to them,” she said.
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Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.“Not everybody likes to receive gifts, and not everybody in communities and their support groups maybe have money to be able to donate or buy something.”
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The items focus on Canadian-made brands, and also feature other cancer patients who have created items specifically for those going through treatment.
“We have worked with close to 50 businesses in Canada,” she said. “I cold-called them. I reached out through email, through Instagram, through calling them, and pitching the story of what ApotheCare could be. There really was hardly any nos.”
Corbett said she scoured social media and enlisted the help of a focus group to help choose the items.
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Tenille Corbett and Amanda Purcell met through mutual friends.
Courtesy: Tennille Corbett
Amanda Purcell had met Corbett through mutual friends and wanted to help. She was diagnosed with Stage 2 triple negative breast cancer in April.
Story continues below advertisement“We think of registries in the sense of you have a baby or you’re having a wedding and that sort of thing,” she said. “But you don’t think about it when it comes to cancer, and I think part of that is because it’s not really something to be celebrated.”
Purcell was diagnosed just three weeks before her wedding.
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Amanda Purcell was diagnosed with Stage 2 triple negative breast cancer just three weeks before her wedding in spring of 2025 and afterwards started 21 weeks of chemotherapy.
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Days after she said “I do,” she started a 21-week cycle of chemotherapy. During that time her husband was rushed in for emergency gall bladder surgery, and her friends and family stepped in to help.
“I think about if you know we’d had ApotheCare at that time, would we be better able to manage some of those things?” she said.
“Somebody who’s fighting cancer, they already have a lot on their plate, quite frankly,” Purcell said.
Story continues below advertisement“It is a lot. Having that peace of mind, that you know, there’s somebody there who’s … willing to put up their hand and help you out with something, I think is such a huge piece.”
Those going through their own cancer journey can register online and then share the registry with their own support networks. The information is not made public and in order to support a registry, you need the unique link.
Corbett said another great way to help a patient is to help them set up the registry, taking something else off the plate of those going through treatment.
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