Nadia Chaudhri, beloved Montreal neuroscientist with fans worldwide, has died

 

Nadia Chaudhri, a Montreal neuroscientist who gathered a worldwide following while sharing her journey in palliative care with ovarian cancer, has died. She was 43.

 Chaudhri was renowned for creating scholarships for underrepresented young scientists and raising awareness about ovarian cancer amid her terminal diagnosis. 

Her friend and colleague, Krista Byers-Heinlein, tweeted confirming her death Wednesday afternoon, saying Chaudhri had passed away the previous evening. 

"She leaves behind her Sun and Moon, a loving extended family, colleagues and students, friends around the world, and so many others who have been touched by her and her story," Byers-Heinlein wrote, referring to Chaudhri's six-year-old son and husband, whom she called her Sun and Moon. 

"Nadia wanted the end of her life to be marked with a celebration of everything she brought to the world, rather than a mourning of what we have lost." 

Byers-Heinlein wrote that one of Chaudhri's final goals was to raise awareness about ovarian cancer. 

Chaudhri garnered an international audience of more than 143,400 followers on Twitter. She wrote on the platform in September about how she had been treated for a urinary tract infection for months before receiving a diagnosis for advanced ovarian cancer in June 2020.

While Chaudhri's cancer had been discovered late, she wanted others to know about a screening tool developed by her doctor, Lucy Gilbert, who she saw after diagnosis. The test can help with earlier detection and determine a patient's possible predisposition to the disease.

 Credit :Verity Stevenson Read more on  · CBC News ·