‘My world stopped’: What it’s like to learn you have cancer from a message on your phone [Video]

When Beth Marchant opened the email announcing that her ultrasound results were ready, the then-32-year-old was floored to discover it contained a breast cancer diagnosis. 

“I saw the word carcinoma,” Marchant said in an interview in her home in Cambridge, Ont. “In an email — that’s not how you want to find out that you have stage 3 breast cancer.”

Jénnelle Johnson — also in her 30s — had a similar experience when she created her account on MyChart, one of the most widely used patient data apps in Canada. 

“I logged in … and then that’s when I saw ‘invasive ductal carcinoma,'” said Johnson, who lives in Hamilton, Ont. “My world stopped.”

As more Canadians get online access to the results of their medical tests, what Johnson and Marchant went through reveals an emerging concern: people learning about a life-changing diagnosis on a screen, without a doctor there to explain it — and …