Ellen Weisberg

cancer researcher, instructor, author

By Rebecca Lavoie

At 42, some women are still struggling to find their voice. But Ellen Weisberg of Nashua has found hers, despite the fact that she almost lost it for good.

A cancer researcher at Dana Farber in Boston and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Weisberg has the kind of career usually reserved for the scientifically minded, or the eternally ambitious. While both of those things, Weisberg has another side to her – a creative drive that doesn’t just supplement her main calling, but exists in partnership with it.

Several years ago, Weisberg found herself energized by her creative outlet, the unusual sideline of radio broadcasting. She was working for a Nashua-based broadcasting company where she was an on-air weather reporter for stations all over the country.

Suddenly, she became afflicted with oromandibular dystonia, which caused severe speech impairment. Dystonia, a disease similar to Parkinson’s, is task-specific. National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm has a version that attacks her vocal chords, and dancers have been known to feel its effects in their arms and legs.

For Weisberg, dystonia caused a paralysis in her mouth so severe that not only did she have to give up the radio work she loved, but she was also unable to work in the lab for several months.

“I was 38 years old,” she said, “and for the first time in my life I realized what someone with cerebral palsy must feel like every day. In a way it was worse, though, because I had been able to talk all my life, and suddenly, I just couldn’t.”

Weisberg began a treatment protocol that helped, but did not completely eradicate her symptoms.

“When we adopted our daughter from China, my dystonia was still full-blown, and I was nervous I’d have a hard time communicating with her.”

But that trip to China to adopt Emily also made Weisberg consider treatments outside of the conventional Western medicine she’d been trained to rely on. On her return, she began an acupuncture program based on treatment used for Parkinson’s patients. And finally, she found the answers she’d been seeking.

“My condition has been in remission since I started the acupuncture protocol,” she said. But because fatigue or a protracted need for vocal projection still causes discomfort in her mouth, Weisberg has had to give up the broadcasting career she loved.

For Weisberg, who admits she has never been one to put all her eggs in one basket, the door closing on one creative pursuit meant another one opened.

She decided to throw herself into writing, something she always loved but didn’t have time for. The result? A well-received young adult novel, “Gathering Roses,” and two children’s books, “Friends and Mates in 50 States” and “All Across Canada.”

Weisberg is now working on “All Across China,” and said all personal proceeds she receives from her books will benefit the Bachman Strauss Parkinson’s Dystonia Foundation.

According to Weisberg, her colleagues at Harvard and Dana Farber don’t always “get” her duality, as most in her profession are fully immersed in the field of science alone.

“I’m definitely known as one of the least driven researchers there,” she said. “I love scientific research, but if I didn’t have writing or some other creative avenue, I think I would lose my mind.”

Not only is it possible to have both in her life, Weisberg said it’s imperative, and dystonia was not enough to hold her back.

“I think I got off easy,” she said. “I didn’t lose my entire quality of life. I’ve learned to try and live as best as I can despite my condition, and to bring things into my life that still bring pleasure as long as I can.”

“Gathering Roses” is available on Amazon.com. For more information about Weisberg’s children’s books, visit www.galdepress.com.

Rebecca Lavoie is a freelance writer who lives in Hopkinton.