About Us

Helen Manson
RN, BSN, ET

Helen completed her nursing degree in 1953 at St. Paul’s hospital. Subsequently, Helen underwent ostomy surgery herself and soon realized the important role that nurses’ could play on ostomy health. Helen’s passion fueled her pursuit of greater expertise and culminated as the 100th graduate from the Cleveland Clinic Enterostomal Therapy program.

Helen returned home as one of British Columbia’s first ET nurse specialists and became a pioneer founding the ostomy clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital in 1973 and Surrey Memorial Hospital in 1980.

Helen soon realized that people with ostomies require lifelong care and that her expertise needed
to be more accessible to all. Helen joined the West End Medicine Centre in 1985 and the Ostomy Care and Supply Centre was born. Helen’s compassion and expertise resulted in overnight success, reaching out and helping people with ostomies.

Under the guidance of her successor and daughter, Andrea Manson, the centre has become British Columbia’s largest ostomy supply company.

Andrea is a visionary and is committed to people’s lifelong ostomy care with the same passion and compassion as her mother.

Andrea (Andy) Manson
RN, BSN, ET, NCA

In 1979, I graduated the nursing program from the College of New Caledonia in Prince George. Upon completing my nursing course, I worked the medical and surgical wards of Ridge Meadows Hospital.

Four years later, I took the critical care-nursing course at St. Paul’s Hospital and worked two years in Intensive Care at St. Paul’s. These hospital years provided many experiences, which serve me well to day.

While working Intensive Care, I realized two things. First, I discovered I like to talk with people; however, very ill people on ventilators heavily sedated don’t talk much. I often found I was talking to myself and getting in the last word. Secondly, I found I like to teach. Over the years, I’ve conducted ostomy seminars for patients, ostomy associations, and for home care, hospital and ET nurses.

In 1989, I obtained my nursing degree from the University of British Columbia. That year, I traveled to Toronto (those who know me well, know I like to travel), and graduated with a specialty in Enterostomal Therapy. Later in 1999, I completed a Nurse Continence Advisor (NCA) course at McMaster University.

After my ET course in 1989, I worked with my mother, Helen Manson, one of the first ET nurses in BC. She has an ostomy and saw the need for ostomy care in the hospital. In the early 1970’s, she developed the ET - Ostomy clinics at St Paul’s and Surrey Hospitals. Then in 1983, she saw the need in the community to provide continued care and support for people with ostomies for as long as they have their ostomy, so she started the Ostomy Care and Supply Centre. Upon her retirement in 1989, I proudly took ownership of the Centre. I knew I had big shoes to fill, for Helen helped to improve ostomy care in BC working tirelessly with the United Ostomy Association, and both with home care and hospital nurses.

I recall looking after ostomy patients when I first started nursing. I can honestly say, I don’t know what they did after surgery when they went home. I am ashamed to think that in 1979, there were very few ostomy appliances available and the options were very limited. Now, I am pleased to say, there are many more appliances, options and companies providing ostomy products. Recently, a company presented an opportunity for me to help develop and test new products. I find it interesting and gratifying to assist ostomy manufacturer’s to improve and to continually modify their products to benefit the end user.

The most difficult part of my job, yet the most fulfilling, is to help people adjust to their ostomy. It’s easy to teach someone to put on an appliance and to empty it but the gratifying part for me is to help people incorporate their ostomy into their life.

The advice I can give to a person with a new ostomy is you are not alone. New clients feel they are alone, or feel they’re the only ones with appliances, or think the appliance they’re wearing is the only type available so I encourage you to ask for help.

New clients often are not aware of the options. At the Centre, we provide options. There are many different types of appliances, deodorants, lubricants, pouch covers, underwear and accessories available to make life with an ostomy easier.

We provide all encompassing ostomy services to our clients and their family. Our examination room allows us to consult privately with clients about their ongoing care. We help select and outfit the appropriate appliance obtained from a wide selection of readily available stock from the various suppliers we carry at the Centre.

For me, I find it satisfying to watch the progress of a person with a new ostomy, who is nervous and unsure of them self, to grow in confidence, progress and to resume living life again. I take pleasure in assisting and showing both new and “experienced” ostomates new appliances, which may make their lives easier.

I am honoured and grateful to be in the ET field of nursing. I acknowledge the trust, confidence and confidentiality that people with an ostomy place in me with this very private part of their lives.

It is a privilege to be a part of a person's life as they "journey" through the surgical experience of having and adjusting to living with an ostomy. I am committed to offering continued support to anyone living with an ostomy.

A 1969 Royal Columbian Hospital School of Nursing graduate and recipient of that years' George T Wilson Surgical Award, my career in surgical nursing commenced on the RCH surgical ward. Later I took a four year hiatus to raise my four children while working part time at both the Burnaby General and Royal Columbian Hospitals.

In 1984, I began to provide vacation relief for the Enterostomal Therapist Clinic at RCH. The impetus for making a career shift from bedside nursing to the role of the Enterostomal Therapist at RCH in 1994 was the satisfaction of caring for this specific group of patients\clients. It was during this time that I decided to enter the Enterostomal Therapy Nurse Education Program offered by the Albany Medical Center, New York, from where, in 1995, I received my course certification as an Enterostomal Therapist.

As the Royal Columbian Hospital joined with Eagle Ridge, Ridge Meadows and Burnaby Hospitals under the Fraser Health Authority, the continuous population growth in these areas demanded an Enterostomal Therapist at each site.

I developed an outpatient clinic at Ridge Meadows Hospital in 1996 which, at present continues to provide pre and post-operative care at the hospital and ongoing rehabilitative care in the clinic.

In 1997 I expanded the RCH Clinic and began to visit Burnaby Hospital also to provide pre and post-operative care to patients having ostomy surgery. At this time, I was joined by a colleague, another Enterostomal Therapist, on a part time basis.

As an Enterostomal Therapist, I specialize in advanced chronic wound care and fistula management and am a founding member of the Clinical Task Team Skin and Wound Care Team for the Fraser Health Authority. The role of this team is to standardize and regionalize the delivery of chronic wound care using best practice. It has always been a driving principle in my practice to engage every aspect of clinical issues, to promote best practices achieving optimum results for each patient\client under my care.

It has and continues to be a great joy to teach at the many workshop presentations with which I have been involved both while working for the Fraser Health Authority and at the Ostomy Care and Supply Center.

I joined Andrea Manson at the Ostomy Care and Supply Center in August, 2005. I retired from RCH in May 2007 and continue to enjoy and value my contact with clients at the Ostomy Care and Supply Center.

I graduated from Vancouver General Hospital School of Nursing, in 1991. I worked, as a registered nurse, RN, on the general surgery ward for 7 years nursing patients after general and ostomy surgery.

In 1995, I completed my Bachelor's degree of Nursing, BSN, from the University of British Columbia.

From 1997, I worked as a home care nurse in community care. This provided me the opportunity to work with many people with ostomies, who now had to manage their stomas in their home environment. I helped people with ostomies and their families adjust to life with an ostomy. Consequently, I found this very rewarding. My experiences in the hospital and in the community have given me the knowledge and experience to provide ostomy care.

I worked with many people with spinal cord injuries and these experiences assisted and expanded my knowledge in wound care.

In 2006, I attended Emory University in Atlanta Georgia and completed their nursing specialty course. I am now a certified nurse in the specialty of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Care. Presently, I work as an Enterostomal Therapist, ET, at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, B.C.

Recently, I am working with the Ostomy Care and Supply Centre. I am very honoured to join Andrea Manson and to be a part of her team at the Ostomy Care and Supply Centre. I am privileged to be working with an incredible team whose philosophy is to provide the best care possible for their clients.

Christina Kerekes
RN, BSN, ET

As the most recent member of the ET team at the Ostomy Care & Supply Centre, I graduated from the U.B.C. school of nursing in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing . I have been blessed with a wide range of experiences in my career since that time spanning from starting in acute care at Chilliwack General Hospital, a classroom/clinical teaching position for care attendants, travelling all over BC working with persons with spinal cord injury and several areas within community nursing.

In 2004, I completed the International Interdisciplinary Wound Care Course from the University of Toronto, which is has focused curriculum on advanced wound management. During that time I was asked to develop the wound care program for Home Care Nursing in Home Health on the North Shore, Vancouver. It was a honour to build the program and I learned very quickly that one of my greatest pleasures and strengths in nursing was teaching staff and patients, as well as a passion for changing practice to promote optimal patient care and superior outcomes. In early 2009, I continued to expand my nursing specialty by adding Ostomy Care to my education after attending Emory University in Atlanta, GA . In addition to working at the Ostomy Care Centre, I have also worked at Vancouver General in the Wound/Ostomy department and currently work at St. Paul’s Hospital as part of the Ostomy team.

On a more personal note, though my first exposures to ostomy care were indeed through my professional nursing career, I also had the profound experience with my dear mother who quite suddenly ended up with a colostomy after emergency surgery for ovarian cancer in 1997. I had the opportunity to walk side by side with her on her journey with the ostomy as well as the cancer. She learned to irrigate her colostomy early on and we had many the “bathroom moment” together trouble shooting various issues. She showed me the power of perseverance and acceptance of this change to her body as it became the “new normal” for her as she went off to swim in the local pool for instance.

She was an incredible person, but equally incredible was the ‘ET angel’ (as I liked to call her) at the local hospital who made the biggest impact on my mother’s life during those last 2 years. Without the Enterostomal therapist, my mother’s experience would have been a difficult and rocky climb both physically and emotionally. Through the relationship that my mother and the ET had, I learned early that an ET is so much more than an just a clinical resource. He/she is there to help with all angles and levels of adjusting to a strange and scary new ostomy. Let’s face it, this is a big change! There were many tears, laughs, hugs and always an open door and open ears. Thinking back, this has left a greater impression on me than I realize and on some level has lead me along the path to where my career has developed today. Now that I have worked in acute care (hospital), homecare as well as my personal journey, I feel particularly ready and excited to take this role as an ET nurse.

It is with the greatest pleasure and privilege that I have come to work with Andy and the team at the Ostomy Care Center because the “team” also consists of the hundreds of incredible people who are now living with their ostomies. I will work exceptionally hard to help them through crossing over to the “new normal” whether their journey is temporary or a lifetime change.

Laurie Cox
RN, ET

I graduated from St. Paul's Hospital school of nursing in 1973. During this time, I met Helen Manson, Andy's mother, the founder of Ostomy Care & Supply Centre. Helen taught me the importance of ostomy care. She stressed how important teaching was in the recovery and well being of a person living with an ostomy.

Having met both Helen and Andy, I knew of their strong passion and commitment to ostomy care, so it became a goal of mine to join Andy’s ET nursing team at Ostomy Care and Supply Center. I'm so very happy to say I met my goal and I finally arrived! I am so fortunate to be able to continue with my passion for ostomy care assisting individuals with an ostomy to make the transition from illness to a better, fuller life.

My 20 year nursing career began in 1974. I started working at the Royal Columbian Hospital on the acute surgical ward. During this time, I provided pre and post operative care for ostomy patients. My career direction moved me to the Pre Admission clinic. During this time, I began to provide vacation relief for Muriel Larsen, the ET nurse at the Royal Columbian Hospital. After my first week of working with ostomy patients, I was hooked. I loved the focus put on the care of patient and the family. Once I met many of my other ET colleagues, I knew I arrived and knew then that ostomy care was the type of nursing I wanted to do for the remainder of my career.

To reach this goal, I committed time and resources to specialize in ostomy care. In 2000, I graduated from the Canadian Association of Enterostomal Therapy (ET) program.

Today, I continue to work as an ET in the Fraser Health Authority (North). As an Ostomy and Wound Clinician, I cover the Royal Columbian Hospital, the Ridge Meadows Hospital, and the Burnaby General Hospital for ostomy care. I am an original member of the Wound and Skin Standardization Committee for the authority and continue to be an active committee member.

A patient once asked me in her early "horrified" days as an ostomy patient why I would want to work with stomas, I replied simply, “I like the people they’re attached to!”

Finally, it’s a privilege and a pleasure to be working with Andy and her incredible ET team whose philosophy is to provide the best care possible for their clients.