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Biography

Sharon Batt is a writer and activist who has achieved prominence for her work focusing on breast cancer. She currently holds Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. Prior to accepting this two-year post, she was director of policy and research for Breast Cancer Action Montreal, the advocacy group she co-founded in 1991. In the 1970s, she was a founder and editor of Canada's first feminist magazine, Branching Out, and a vice-president for three years of the Canadian Periodical Publisher's Association.

 

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, she was struck by the invisibility of women with breast cancer in society and the fact that their perspective was absent from discussions about the disease. She began to examine the consequences of this absence in her writing, first in articles and radio documentaries, and eventually in the book Patient No More: The Politics of Breast Cancer, a feminist and social justice critique.

 

A frequent international guest speaker about breast cancer, she advocates public participation in policy decisions about the disease. She has served on many national and international policy committees dealing with the issue. She continues this work at the Mount, where her duties include teaching, research, and public presentations on campus and around the Atlantic provinces.

 

Her books include, Beyond Early Detection: A New Look at Breast Cancer (1996) and Patient No More: The Politics of Breast Cancer (1994 and in Australia in 1996).

 

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Awards
1991 National Media Awards Competition for Excellence in Health Reporting, for "The Cancer Personality"
1991 Major Armstrong Award for excellence in Broadcasting, for "The Cancer Personality"

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Book Awards
Patient No More: 1995 Laura Jamieson Award - Best Feminist Book Published in Canada in 1994
Patient No More: 1995 Finalist, QSPELL - Best Non-Fiction Book in English by a Quebec Writer

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Books published by, or available from, Spinifex

Patient No More