Jamaican-Canadian centenarian Lillie Johnson has been named among the list of over 70 people honored with the Order of Canada for “her long-time dedication to improving public health within the black community, notably through the creation of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario.”
The Order of Canada is the second-highest honor in Canada given to Canadians who make a major difference to Canada through lifelong contributions in every field of endeavor.
The 101-year-old Lillie Johnson is the founder of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario, which she started in 1981.
Early life and career
Lillie Johnson was born in 1922, the third child and first daughter in a family of nine children. She is a past student of Wolmer’s High School for Girls. After high school, she attended the Shortwood Teachers’ College and worked as a teacher in Jamaica.
She eventually left to study nursing in England in 1950. After completing her studies in Britain, Johnson returned to Jamaica where she worked at the University College of the West Indies Hospital in Kingston. From there, she went to the United States in 1958 to work at the Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.
Johnson then journeyed to Canada two years later.
She was already a trained and experienced nurse, teacher, and midwife, having worked in both Jamaica and the U.K. Johnson went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto and spent her career in Ontario serving in many different capacities in the medical field.
She taught a course in Child and Maternal Health at Humber College and then became the first Black director of public health in Ontario’s Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark districts.
Sickle cell advocacy
While working as a nurse during the 1960s and 1970s, Johnson visited many patients with sickle cell disease, a life-threatening condition characterized by severe, unpredictable painful episodes and complications that can limit daily activities and cause disability.
She was indispensable in lobbying the government for the inclusion of sickle cell disease in newborn screening in Ontario. Incredibly accomplished in her field, Johnson has received numerous different awards and honors in her lifetime, including being the torch bearer for the Pan-Am Games in 2015 and the Order of Ontario (the province’s highest honor) in 2011.
Johnson has also been a member of the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) since its inception in 1962.
