‘Shame and stigma’: News of Catherine O’Hara’s rectal cancer brings hope for more awareness – CTV
February 11, 2026
A British Columbia woman treated for colorectal cancer says she hopes news that Canadian acting legend Catherine O’Hara had rectal cancer when she died will help more people realize how common the cancer is and open up more conversations about it.
Mary De Vera is nearing her 10-year anniversary of being diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer in 2016 and says she has watched advocacy organizations in Canada and the U.S. use O’Hara’s death as an opening to raise awareness about colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer in Canada.
“It’s a cancer below the waist and any time you have that, there is that shame and stigma and taboo. I remember when I was diagnosed, I was 36, and I immediately felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, of all the cancers, why did I have to have one that’s, you know, embarrassing?” she said.
“So I think now there’s that opening to that conversation on things that are not normally talked about.”
A Los Angeles County death certificate issued Monday lists a pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery in the lungs, as the immediate cause of O’Hara’s death on Jan. 30 at age 71. Rectal cancer was listed as the long-term cause.
