Josephine Adda’s son is able to enjoy the pool at summer camp, thanks to their pharmacist.
Josephine’s son, who is on the autism spectrum, needed specific pool pants because of incontinence. Josephine had never heard of the special pants, but asked her pharmacist, Marianne Olszewski. Marianne didn’t have the pants in stock, but called around, searched online, and finally found two other locations in Calgary that had them.
“When it comes to the health of my family, I don’t always know the processes, or where I can get stuff, so with Marianne’s knowledge it just makes that burden lighter for me. If I hadn’t gotten the pool pants on that day my son would not have gone to camp at all,” said Josephine.
This wasn’t the first time that Josephine was grateful for Marianne’s help. When Josephine first moved to Calgary, she needed to transfer her son’s Alberta Aids to Daily Living (AADL) file. She was told to simply visit a pharmacy, give them her AADL number, and the file would move with her. She visited several pharmacies before finding help from Marianne, who explained to Josephine what she needed to do, step by step, to successfully transfer her son’s file.
Marianne appreciates the recognition from Josephine, but she believes she was just living up to her professional responsibilities as a pharmacist.
“We wouldn’t be doing what they call ‘the helping profession’ if we didn’t want things to work out,” Marianne said. “Everyone should get what they need, when they need it, not just when we have time.”
