Bio




Donna Thomson is a caregiver, author and educator.  She is the mother of two grown children, one who has severe cerebral palsy and medical complexity. Donna also helped care for her mother who lived with dementia until she passed away in the summer of 2018 at the age of 96. Donna is the co-author (with Dr. Zachary White) of The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation of Loved One to Caregiver (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and author of The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving (McArthur and Co., 2010 and The House of Anansi Press, 2014). She blogs regularly at The Caregivers’ Living Room. Donna is a co-designer and co-instructor of The Family Engagement in Research Course as well as the Leadership Academy and she facilitates the Caregiving Essentials Course, all at McMaster University. Donna is the past vice-chair of Kids Brain Health Network and currently sits on the boards of the National accessArts Centre and the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence where she won the inaugural Vickie Cammack Trailblazer Award.

When she's not writing and reading about caregiving, Donna loves to cook for friends and family, dance and whenever possible, meditate in the wilderness, either in Quebec or in Cat Island, Bahamas.