Cancer survivor Nora Domingo has spent almost a decade volunteering at the Cross Cancer Institute, giving back to heal herself and help others.
By Elizabeth Chorney-Booth
Photographs by Ryan Parker
On a typical Monday, Nora Domingo can most likely be found in the gift shop at Edmonton’s Cross Cancer Institute (Cross), where she’s been volunteering her time for nearly a decade. She dresses the mannequins, organizes merchandise displays and sells books, clothing and various giftware, yet Domingo’s presence in the shop has a deep impact on patients that goes far beyond sales.
One of her favourite duties is helping Albertans undergoing chemotherapy pick out headwear. It can be an intensely emotional experience that requires patience and empathy.
“I enjoy taking the time to spend an hour with someone to pick one hat, toque, scarf or kerchief, if that’s what they need,” says Domingo. “They have to be comfortable with what they choose.”
Domingo understands the importance of these personal interactions and reassurances during cancer treatment because it’s a road she’s walked herself. Volunteering at the Cross gives her the satisfaction of helping others who are living with cancer, but it’s also helped Domingo’s own healing.
Domingo’s journey
Domingo was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016. She was fortunate that the disease was caught very early after a routine cervical cancer screening showed unusual results, which led to more testing. Wanting to take control of the situation, she took what she calls “a very radical route” and opted for a hysterectomy to remove any possibility of the cancer spreading. Her lymph nodes were unaffected and the surgery was performed with minimally invasive robotic technology, but the impacts on her body and mind — from the hormonal effects of the hysterectomy and emotional stress of her diagnosis — were still overwhelming.
After taking a few months off work, Domingo returned to her job as a case manager in disability management, but found that the emotional toll of her job caused significant mental strain. Having to pore through other people’s medical information to do her job was particularly difficult after having just undergone major surgery herself. Even though she was semi-retired before her cancer experience and working part-time, she considered extending her medical leave.
“I didn’t need any chemo or radiation, which was very good, but even without that, the journey was difficult,” Domingo says. “When I went back to work, I had difficulty focusing, reading and processing medical reports to write up the clients’ analyses. This was the brain fog I’d heard about.”
Over the course of her career, Domingo often suggested that her clients try volunteering as a way of socializing, getting used to work schedules and redeveloping soft people skills before reintegrating into a formal workplace. As she struggled to return to her pre-cancer routines, she decided to take her own advice — and that of the psychosocial oncology support workers at the Cross — and sign up to volunteer at the cancer centre through the Cross Cancer Institute Volunteer Association (CCIVA).
From patient to volunteer
In 2017, Domingo began volunteering at the Cross as a wayfinder to help patients and their loved ones navigate the halls of the cancer centre, leading them to appointments, doctors’ offices and treatment rooms. She also found a fit at the volunteer-run gift shop. She made friends with fellow volunteers and her time volunteering quickly became an integral part of her life. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, most volunteer positions at the Cross were put on hold — save for the wayfinding shifts, which were deemed an essential service. Eager to pitch in even during the pandemic restrictions, Domingo continued the wayfinding shifts so she could still contribute to the Cross community.
Once COVID restrictions were lifted, Domingo kept a weekly wayfinding shift on her schedule even after she was reinstated to her gift shop duties. She says she likes wayfinding because it involves significant walking and adds some physical exercise to her week, but she also enjoys the opportunities for deeper social connection and responsibility at the gift shop. Cancer treatment, naturally, is stressful and Domingo appreciates that she can help create moments of respite in the shop, even among individuals facing incredible discomfort and hardship.
Passion and purpose
Domingo says her volunteer work started as an outlet to get her back into the swing of things after surgery, but once she started bonding with individuals going through cancer and her fellow volunteers, she recognized the true impact of her work. She says the trick is to choose volunteer opportunities that hold a personal resonance. It’s that passion for engaging with people living with cancer that keeps her coming back week after week.
Now fully retired, she also volunteers at Edmonton’s Yardbird Suite jazz club in honour of her late husband, an active musician who passed away in 2022. Whereas her time at the Cross allows her to give back to the cancer care community, volunteering at Yardbird Suite is a way to stay involved in the community that meant so much to her husband. Domingo says that taking two of the most difficult things that have happened to her and turning them into volunteer opportunities has been especially healing.
“I volunteer at places where I have a connection to the cause,” she says.
Since signing up to volunteer less than a year after her surgery, Domingo has contributed over 2,500 volunteer hours at the Cross. She’s helped a lot of Albertans with cancer and helped raise a lot of money, too — gift shop profits go back to the CCIVA to fund other patient programs in the hospital, and in 2024, CCIVA volunteers raised $725,000 to renovate a non-clinical space in the Cross into a clinical area. But volunteering has also offered Domingo a lot of personal healing as she shares her own experiences. As she helps patients in the store, Domingo says she loves acting as an example of how she’s found meaning in the time she’s gained after her cancer surgery. It’s that understanding and connection that makes her volunteer work not just a way to fill her time in her retirement, but a truly soul-nourishing purpose.
“I’ve been a cancer survivor for 10 years,” she says. “When you have that history, it helps people at the Cross to feel more optimistic with their own treatment, diagnosis and rehab.”
Nora Domingo’s volunteer timeline
2016
Nora Domingo is diagnosed with cervical cancer and successfully undergoes hysterectomy surgery.
2017
Starts her first intermittent volunteer shifts at the Cross Cancer Institute and becomes a regular member of the gift shop team.
2020
Continues volunteering as a wayfinder during pandemic restrictions.
2026
Celebrates 10 years of being cancer-free and continues to volunteer her time both in the gift shop and as a wayfinder.
