Former Mapleton resident Tanya Radstake is in the running in the professional category of this year’s K-W Octoberfest Rogers Women of the Year awards.
Radstake is the daughter of Paul and Paulette Wilson, of Mapleton, RR1 Arthur.
Her mother Paulette Wilson explained that Radstake, a perfusionist in the Cardiovascular Surgery Program at St. Mary’s, was nominated for the award.
Wilson said the nomination had happened a few weeks prior.
Wilson, a nurse herself, explained that as a perfusionist, her daughter operates the heart lung machine which takes care of a person’s blood while undergoing cardiac surgery.
“… and it’s a scary looking machine,” Wilson quipped.
Radstake is a graduate of Arthur District High School, later getting her RN at Conestoga College in 1994.
She had worked in the United States for five years doing work in intensive care before coming back to Canada.
Radstake has now been with St. Mary’s for 15 years, and has been the only female cardiovascular perfusionist for 10 years since the program’s inception.
Wilson said her daughter was asked to take the perfusionist three-year course at the Michener Institute because the cardiac unit was being set up at St. Mary’s.
“She just loves it,” Wilson added. “It is not for me, and I am a nurse myself.”
For two years, she led the St. Mary’s United Way Campaign. She was also on the hospital’s Board of Trustees as staff representative for two years.
“We’re pretty proud of her,” Wilson added.
Wilson added her daughter is married to Paul Norman Radstake (also an Arthur high school graduate) and the couple now live in Kitchener.
The winners of the Women of the Year Awards will be announced at a ceremony October 9 at the Waterloo Inn.
