In memory of Jenna
Diagnostic Imaging Department at CEHHC renamed to honour Jenna Delaney
“I was… the last one to hold her hand.”
So said Dr. Brian Delaney of his daughter Jenna, who passed away from cancer 11 years ago.
On Oct. 20, the Delaney family, from Truro, was honoured guests as the Jenna Delaney Diagnostic Imaging Department was formally unveiled at the Colchester East Hants Health Centre.
e hospital’s diagnostic department was renamed after Jenna Delaney’s loved ones made an undisclosed gift to the CEHHC, forming part of a $5.2 million fund needed to replace vital equipment, including the CT scanner.
Brian said his daughter’s cancer went undetected for more than two years and faced another delay of several months, as broken equipment prevented her from being diagnosed before it was too late, a message echoed by Jenna’s mother Jean.
“I went to the doctor several times and they passed it o as a pulled muscle and being a mother, in my heart, I knew that there had to be something more and nally, the fth time I took her to the doctor, he agreed to do a CT scan on her,” said Jean.
e family did not wish to disclose what type of cancer their daughter had, but said she had it once when she was 12 and it later returned when she was about 18 or 19. Jenna passed away at age 20 on June 28, 2007.
Before her death, Jenna was de- scribed as a top student, graduating from Cobequid Educational Centre in 2005 with scholarships. She then attended St. Francis Xavier University for one year before her cancer returned, studying physics.
Outside the classroom, Jenna joined both the Truro gure skating team and the St. Francis Xavier dance team.
She served as CEC’S student council president from 2004 to 2005 and performed in the annual musicals, including a lead role in the performance of ‘A Chorus Line’ in Grade 12.
In addition, Jenna was an award-winning performer at the Truro Music Festival and represented her hometown in the provincial music festival.
“She packed a lot into her 20 years. It was not uncommon to pick her up from one activity and she’d be changing in the back seat while we were going to the next activity, like she wanted to pack it all in,” said Brian.
“You wonder sometimes if there’s something inside a person that says, ‘I may not be here for a long time, so I’d better get the best out of it.’”
He said in Jenna’s last two years she had a boyfriend, who quit his job and returned home to stay with her after she received her cancer diagnosis.
Choking back tears, Brian said even as Jenna spent her nal days in palliative care, she made the key decisions regarding the end of her life, “taking the load o of me.”
“ at’s the kind of girl she was, and we miss her very much,” said Brian.