liz ellwood

Liz has been involved in women’s health advocacy since 2006. At the age of 24 she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer. Prior to undergoing cancer treatment, Liz encountered a lack of information and resources available to young people to how cancer treatment would affect their fertility. After freezing her eggs, she underwent multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. During this time, Liz founded Fertile Future, a charity that has since financially assisted nearly 800 young cancer patients preserve their fertility before undergoing sterilizing cancer treatments. Liz has also become one of Canada’s leading cervical cancer and hpv awareness advocates, educating women about the importance of vaccinating and screening to prevent and treat cervical cancer. Liz is also the Founder and Director of Operations at Fertility Match, an egg donor agency that helps aspiring parents who need an Egg  Donor to have their families. 

While her cancer treatment did save her life, the surgeries and radiation also left her infertile and with debilitating pain and other side effects that negatively affected her life for almost a decade. It took seeing countless specialists to finally be diagnosed with a rare condition called vulvodynia. Finding the right treatment plan drastically improved her ability to truly enjoy day to day life and keep up with her daughter. Liz’s personal healthcare journey has taught her time and again how important it is for a woman to not be afraid to advocate for herself if she thinks something is not right with her body. Liz is thrilled to be a part of an organization like Femade that embodies this exact message for women and assists them in finding answers, treatment options and connects them with specialists and practitioners who truly care. Liz was the recipient of an award of excellence for her work in the Onco-Fertility field in 2013 and received Ottawa’s Top 40 Under 40 award in 2018.