Committees and Councils

John Coderre, Patient Partners®

John Coderre is a retired officer of the Canadian Forces who served in the Military Engineering branch for over 22 years. Following his military career he was the Campaign Director of the United Way of London & Middlesex for ten years.

John has osteoarthritis (OA) and degenerative disk disease, which has led to his volunteer work with the Patient Partners® in Arthritis program since 2000. John enjoys demonstrating musculoskeletal (MSK) examinations to student health professionals at the University of Western Ontario in London and McMaster University in Hamilton. The death of his only daughter in 1982 after a long illness created an empathy for bereaved families, and he has also spent many years serving on the Boards of agencies such as Hospice of London, Family Service London and the Centre for Studies of Death & Bereavement at King's University College, London. John has been a member of CAN's Consumer Advisory Council since 2008.

Since OA has taken away his ability to participate in his life-long favorite sports of golf, volleyball and slo-pitch, John has taken up lower-impact activities such as swimming, cycling and cross-country skiing. He believes strongly in maintaining weight and fitness through sport and has been a member of the games organizing committee (GOC) for the Ontario provincial winter and summer senior games Winterfest 2003 and Actifest 2008. He also participates in these games and recently won the Gold medal in the Sprint Medley Swimming event at Actifest 2010.

John received his BEng in Civil Engineering from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, and an MSc in Operational Research while attending the University of Birmingham, UK, on an Athlone Fellowship. He lives in London, Ontario with his wife, Patricia, a retired nurse who also has OA and fibromyalgia. His son, Stephen, teaches high school in Vancouver.

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