Mother-daughter duo takes to the web

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

When Dollard des Ormeaux resident Lynda Lubin was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago, she and her daughter Amanda were able to take a tragedy and turn it into a productive and positive venture.

The Myhealthspot.ca directory idea came to the mother-daughter duo when they set out to search for complimentary health care service providers on top of the medical treatment Lynda was receiving from her doctor.

“Traditional medicine is something that saved my life. I’m a strong believer in it,” Lynda said. However, finding those alternatives was no easy task.

“When my mom was going through breast cancer, there were a few incidences when I was looking for alternatives – exercise programs, yoga, meditation, etc. — and I couldn’t find a single thing,” said Amanda, a 25-year-old certified yoga instructor, holistic health counsellor, and lifestyle coach. “It was very frustrating.”

Instead of sitting idly by, the two set out to create a one-stop online directory where people looking for complimentary health care practitioners could find what they were searching for. But it turned out to be a much bigger challenge than either of them initially thought.

“We researched it just by walking the pavement, basically,” Lynda said. “It wasn’t easy. We had to go through so many different places. There are a lot of resources out there.”

After months of hard work, Myhealthspot.ca was released in December with over 750 listings in the directory – including everything from healthy restaurants to wellness centres and hypnotherapists to herbologists – a calendar of events, articles, healthy recipes, and much more. In the five months Myhealthspot.ca has been online, the site has seen its hits reach over 2,000 in March, a number that the Logins anticipate will keep rising in the future.

“It’s building every month,” Amanda said, adding she and her mother plan on redesigning and updating the site to make it more comprehensive and accessible.

“We want people’s articles. We invite that. There’s a calendar of events we’re looking for input on,” said Lynda, adding she would like the website to become more of a public forum. “There are so many amazing things going on, and unless people happened upon it in a newspaper, there’s nowhere to hear about it.”

As they continue to work on and watch their website grow, the mother-daughter team say it is precisely their relationship that keeps them focused and helps them stay motivated.

“Working together is great. Amanda’s much more technical. She’s got all the computer stuff and also the holistic health background. I’m more the researcher,” Lynda said. “It really works, because we know each other’s strengths.”

For more, visit www.myhealthspot.ca.