When Tamara Taggart was told she had a 10 cm tumor in her abdomen that would require rigorous treatment, doctors gave her hope. They encouraged her, and spoke positively about the journey she was about to take.
“I went to see the oncologist,” she remembers. “He was loving and positive and empathetic and most of all, he was hopeful.”
A few years earlier, when her son Beckett was born with an extra chromosome and a diagnosis of Down’s Syndrome, she encountered a very different message from doctors.
“We were told all these horrible things, and yet my big, ugly, nasty tumor was wrapped up in a lovely bow and everybody talked to me in such a positive manner,” she says.
25 years ago Tamara and I were in broadcast school together. 20 years ago we worked at the same radio station. 5 years ago when I was out of work she helped me sort my head and get my perspectives straight. I’m so proud of her and this talk.
Let her take you on her journey through an emotional TEDxSFU talk that will dissect how we, as a society, need to change our approach to families facing a Down’s Syndrome diagnosis.