Doctor doesn’t give up day job to write first novel
St. Albert girls bring home rugby sevens gold cup for national club based in Regina
Dr. Jana Rieger is an academic by day, a novelist at night and a boxer in her spare time.
Her just-published first book, A Course in Deception, has won a prestigious U.S. award and she hopes it will become a runaway best-selling Christmas stocking stuffer.
“My writing career didn’t start well,” she said. “The first real essay I ever submitted was in Grade 7 and came back from Mr. Lent my teacher with the word ‘Plagiarism?’ And there was a big fat zero beside it.
“I had to look up the word to understand what I had done wrong. I didn’t know you couldn’t just grab the Encyclopedia Britannica and copy some stuff out of it.”
Today Rieger is director of research at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine and a professor in the faculty of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Alberta.
“My research has focused on understanding functional outcomes in patients with defects of the head and neck secondary to cancer and trauma,” she said.
As a clinician-scientist, Rieger planned, set up, and deployed an innovative health outcomes assessment program that is internationally renowned and is credited as the gold standard in the field.
She is currently awaiting clinical trials on Mobili-T, a portable swallowing therapy system for individuals with swallowing disorders, with particular focus on head and neck cancer.
“Our research and development is driven by the fact approximately 20 per cent of Canadians over 50 are living with a swallowing disorder — that’s approximately 2.7 million people in Canada,” said Rieger.
“Individuals with a swallowing impairment are often unable to consume a normal diet, which can lead to dependence on tube feeding. This can vastly impact the quality of life, even after the cancer is gone.”
Rieger uses her academic background in her book, which tells a chilling story of betrayal.
Researcher Dr. Mackenzie Smith is a renowned sleep scientist who is thrown into a world of lies and deception when her research associate dies in a suspicious car accident. It happens on the day she has been summoned to defend the ethical treatment of her laboratory rats.
Without the evidence that her associate had promised to get that day, the researcher is left defenceless. Mackenzie begins to find disturbing messages her associate has left about the latest drug trial in the sleep clinics and she vows to uncover what he so badly wanted her to know. But others interfere and the researcher is accused of research fraud and barred from her lab.
The plot is set in many familiar Edmonton places, including the U of A Faculty Club, When Pigs Fly on Whyte Avenue and the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald.
GOLD CUP WIN
Two St. Albert 16-year-old students arrived back in Edmonton from Colombia last week after helping win a gold cup in a sevens rugby tournament.
“We played three games each day and one exhibition game in a week in our age division,” said Avery Jeffery from Paul Kane School.
“Our Colombian opponents in the final hadn’t beaten our team in previous tournaments and were determined, fast and aggressive. But our team’s superior technical skills won the day.”
With her on the trip to Medellin — Colombia’s second largest city with a population of 2.5 million — was Kiana Kruger from Bellerose Composite High School.
The girls represented the Dog River Howlers, an invitation rugby club founded in Regina in 2007 and whose teams are made up from players from throughout Canada and a few from other parts of the world.
“The club takes its name from CTV’s popular Corner Gas TV series,” said Jeffrey. “Invitations are sent to players, or players can apply.
“The club tours interesting parts of the world for cultural experiences and gives back to host communities.”
The trip cost Jeffery and her mother Sarah, a medical office assistant, $2,000 each. They also collected donations to help local needy Colombians.
“My mother is keen to return next year,” said Jeffery. “In the meantime, I’m applying to UBC (University of British Columbia) and the University of Victoria to study education.
“I want to be near Langley, the headquarters of the Canadian team. I have aspirations to represent my country.”
DANCING DEL DILKIE
Aged 74, she appeared on TV in a black bikini after winning her first bodybuilding competition.
At 80, she couldn’t find a place to work out in the Mexican village where she wintered and opened a public gym.
And it was therefore no surprise to her friends last Sunday when Del Dilkie threw her own 87th birthday party at the Chateau Lacombe Hotel.
“I invited anyone celebrating a November birthday to join me at a tea dance and enjoy the sounds of George Carmichael’s Trocadero Big Band Orchestra,” said Dilkie.
Some 175 guests paid a nominal fee for a glass of champagne, munched on snacks and enjoyed a slice of a huge birthday cake.
“Most guests dusted off their dance shoes to show their prowess on the floor,” said Dilkie, who presented 22 guests with birthday presents.
“Ninety-one-year-old Harley Deeks was the man most in demand. He’s as gracious and as sure of his steps as Fred Astaire and knows how to make his partner feel like a professional.”
Dilkie and her friend Sherry Ying Diao took a basket around and collected $400 for the Operation Friendship Seniors Society.