Margaret Loniewska

Rethink Breast Cancer Key Collaborator and MBC Advisors Group member

Margaret Loniewska is a former researcher and current educator, and patient advocate living with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). She earned her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Toronto. She has published peer-reviewed articles and continues to apply her scientific training to cancer patient advocacy in Canada.

Since her diagnosis during early pregnancy in 2019, Margaret has become a voice in patient advocacy. She serves as a Key Collaborator at ReThink Breast Cancer, where she contributes to initiatives such as the “Make MBC Count” campaign, new funding opportunities for quality-improvement research in Canada, and advocacy for take-home cancer drug access for Ontario patients. Margaret also works to ensure that the perspectives of young people with MBC, including those diagnosed during pregnancy, are reflected in research, policy, and education. Mainly, the importance of inclusion of MBC patients in clinical trials as these patients are in most need of new treatments and quality of life improvements.

Margaret also serves as patient partner at Ontario Institute of Cancer Research (OICR) along with other cancer patients. This group is committed to integrating the patient perspective across all aspects of cancer research. As a patient partner, Margaret has been involved in many capacities of cancer research, including patient perspective on research design, grant applications and knowledge translation, all the way to strategic planning of the OICR.

Margaret lives in Toronto with her husband RJ, daughter Marianna, and their rescue dog Lucky.