Lisa Thompson
Lisa graduated from Shawnigan Lake School and then attended the University of Washington and the University of Victoria. While attending the University of Washington she worked on a degree in Neuro Psychology and concurrently worked on a BA in dance. She completed her Neuro Psychology degree at the University of Victoria. Beyond academics, she was a coxswain on both university rowing crews and accomplished a Pac 10 championship while at the University of Washington. She was also part of the Olympic development teams for rowing Canada. Lisa also trained in ballet to a professional level and this remained an integral part of her life until injury forced her to stop.
In her final year of university, she began working at W&J Wilson, an independent family business. She discovered that she had a passion and aptitude for business and became manager and buyer, learning the business from the ground up. She continued to travel to Europe and the US for the buying and managed the business for the next 17 years.
Lisa became involved with LHON in 2012 when a diagnostic oddity brought her doctors to the diagnosis. She reached out to find organizations and although she was able to find them in the US, there were none in Canada. After attending the LHON.org conference she decided to start a support network for LHON PLUS. She had realized it was an orphan disease that it had hardly any information available for patients and doctors, and her goal is to find patients and then establish research. LHONPLUS.org was born and a support network evolved for patients. Lisa is excited to be able to participate with LHON Canada because she has learned a lot in her last 6 years as a patient advocate for the disease.
