Bringing Knowledge and Experience to the Great North

The choice was fairly easy for Ranjan and his wife when a professional offer came in to move to Canada in 2001.

“We were both settled very well in our respective medical professions in South Africa, but we had not moved our daughter there from India because we were concerned about safety,” says Ranjan. “We knew in Canada we could pursue our specialties and make a good life as a family.”

Ranjan is a world leader in high-dose brachytherapy – a form of cancer treatment. He was recruited as a Professor of Oncology to lead a program in brachytherapy at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton affiliated to McMaster University. His wife Monalisa is an Associate Professor of Anatomical Pathology at the Henderson Hospital in the same University and their daughter, now 14, happily settled in Canada with the normal teenager’s life centered on school and friends. “We became citizens in 2006 and happily made the commitment to Canada,” says Ranjan. “It was an easy decision. The big difference in living here, for us, is security for our family, not to mention the opportunities in life that our daughter will get when she grows up.”

At the time Ranjan and Monalisa came to Canada there was a shortage of Radiation Oncologists and Anatomical Pathologists. Ranjan’s expertise in brachytherapy involves directly penetrating a tumour with small, radioactive seeds that are inserted using a catheter. The treatment was typically used in treating prostate and cervical cancer, but Ranjan explored the technique for treating tumours in the lung, esophagus and bile duct while in South Africa.

When the couple moved to Canada, they quickly settled into careers that have helped make a difference in the delivery of services to Canadian cancer patients. Ranjan is a great example of an internationally trained worker who has successfully integrated into the Canadian labour market.  He is now one of the few Oncologists in Canada with brachytherapy expertise. In fact, Ranjan’s work in Hamilton has placed the cancer centre ahead of others in exploratory use of the treatment.

While other professional opportunities present themselves from time to time, Ranjan and Monalisa are happily settled and pleased to be together with their daughter as a family.

“I doubt our daughter would ever consider moving, even to another place in Canada,” says an amused Ranjan. “She is happy, we have our family together and good professional lives…it was an easy decision to become citizens here and commit to the country that has given us this life.”