Charlotte Sabbah is 79 years old, brimming with energy and driven by an unwavering conviction: serving others isn’t a choice she made one day. It’s simply who she is. She has been a volunteer at Hope & Cope since 2023 and brings a wealth of experience to the Wellness Centre that few can match.
Twice in her life, Charlotte has “taken refuge”: a Buddhist ceremony through which one commits to following the precepts of this philosophy, particularly kindness and acceptance of impermanence. The first time was in the United States with a great master. The second, in Nepal. The two masters did not know each other. Yet, on both occasions, they gave her the same name: Tara, the goddess of transmission.
“It’s a coincidence, but that’s always what I’ve done,” she says. “I’ve served the community, I’ve taught, and now I volunteer. Passing on knowledge is very important to me.”
Charlotte is a trained social worker. She has worked in just about every field: community work, psychiatric work, and humanitarian work with Doctors Without Borders. There, she encountered poverty, abuse, and death on a daily basis.
She has also taught social work at universities in the United States and Canada. She is an ethnotherapist, a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of people from ethnic or cultural minorities.
She wrote The Price of Belonging: A Postcolonial Journey, a book about her humanitarian experience. It was used for several years at the Université de Montréal in the medical, sociology, and psychology curricula.
That’s not all! She also paints, primarily expressive portraits that defy conventional categories. She does beadwork and embroidery. She readily describes herself as an “eternal student.” At 79, she still has a thirst for learning.
Why Hope & Cope
Charlotte discovered Hope & Cope after meeting France Brat in a book club. France told her about the Wellness Centre, and Charlotte asked, “Could they use her?”
What convinced her was the organization’s uniqueness.
The word “cancer” is still scary, Charlotte acknowledges. It’s still taboo. But people who walk through the doors of the Wellness Centre find something rare. “When you come here, you feel at home,” a patient told her recently. “It’s warm; it’s like family.”
“The more time I spend there, the more I realize there’s no other place like it in Montreal or Quebec,” she says. “I saw proof of this through my daughter. She has cancer and lives in the United States. I keep telling her to try to find a centre that offers support groups, counselling, and workshops. She tells me, ‘That doesn’t exist.’”
It is this conviction, as much as her professional background, that keeps her at the Wellness Centre.
What She Does at the Centre
Charlotte’s role has evolved since she first started. She initially met with people newly diagnosed with cancer. She listened to them and introduced them to available programs tailored to their needs. It’s front-line work that, according to Charlotte, requires as much resilience as it does clinical skills.
When her daughter received her own cancer diagnosis, Charlotte tried to continue in this role. But she quickly realized it was no longer possible.
“I identified too closely with the patients,” she explains. “I was asking personal questions about their care and their side effects. I knew why I was doing it, and I decided to take a break. I had to.”
Since then, Charlotte has been leading the Living in the Now group, designed for people living with metastases, and making follow-up calls to people who have attended the Wellness Centre.
She also led the “Stronger Together” group for two years, which brought together an average of ten to twelve participants every two weeks. The group consisted of women living with various types of cancer, who encouraged one another, shared information, and created a WhatsApp group through which they still communicate today.
What patients mean to her
Charlotte raves about the people she meets at the Center. “I think they’re absolutely wonderful,” she says. “It takes strength of character and a respect for life. I admire them so much. ”
She sees this relationship as a two-way exchange of energy. One day, shortly before a group session, her discouragement over her daughter’s illness had gotten the better of her. That day, a patient helped her bounce back.
“At the end of the session, he told me, ‘I’m so happy to have met you,’” she recounts. “I replied, ‘Me too.’ There’s an exchange of energy—it’s wonderful.”
When patients tell her she has given them so much, her response never changes: “You give me the energy I need to help you.”
Volunteering Isn’t Something You Do in Your Spare Time
One day, a friend challenged her on something she said. Charlotte had mentioned that she was going to “work” at the Wellness Centre. Her friend corrected her: “No, you’re volunteering.” Charlotte thought about it and stood her ground.
“For me, it’s working. It’s putting all my skills to use. It’s volunteer work, work I do for free, and it’s a commitment. It’s not something you do every now and then just because you have a little free time,” she insists.
For Charlotte, volunteering isn’t just another activity. It’s the continuation of a lifetime dedicated to serving others.
“My role is to inspire others to live and to share my zest for life. Because I think life is beautiful.”
Would you like to make a difference in the lives of people affected by cancer? Hope & Cope is always looking for dedicated volunteers. Contact us at volunteering@hopeandcope.ca to learn more, or fill out the application form.
