Last Friday (29 January), a few friends and former colleagues joined Joan Hollobon for a celebration of her 96th birthday.

Joan retired in 1986 after 25 years as the Globe and Mail‘s medical reporter. Post-retirement, she continued as a contributing editor of the then-Addiction Research Foundation’s Journal, and continued working with the Canadian Science Writers Association, of which she was a founding member. (The organization presented her with its first lifetime achievement award in 2010.)

Joan was a mentor to many, and in particular, a role model for me in my 35-year (and counting) medical reporting career.

Her memory has dimmed somewhat but she remains vitally interested in Canadian healthcare and politics, and had a great time at the party as these pictures attest.~TM