There's a 'huge gender gap in brain research,' MP says

Bendayan learned first-hand how women are affected by major head injuries

- TONDA MACCHARLES

Rachel Bendayan had been very sick and slow to recover from pneumonia last winter. After a bad coughing spell one January night, the Liberal member of Parliament got up to grab some water when she suddenly got dizzy and fell crashing down over the stairs at her home.

Bendayan struck her head hard over the right temple on a wrought iron railing. Her husband found her bleeding in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. The massive concussion that followed would take the 44-year-old mother more than six months to get over.

Last Thursday, she returned to Parliament Hill for the first time since her accident. On Monday, Bendayan stood in the House of Commons to answer questions on capital gains taxes in her role as parliamentary secretary to the deputy prime minister and finance minister, prompting a standing ovation from her colleagues who knew what a rough time it had been.

For Bendayan, it was a moment of triumph, and a return to the job she loves. Her first public appearance in months had been May 31 at a Montreal event where cabinet ministers highlighted $80 million in renewed federal government funding for Brain Canada Foundation, but Bendayan wasn't front and centre.