Shantelle Harris lost her father when she was a teenager to leukemia following benzene exposure
The teenager Shantelle Harris once was could never have imagined herself standing before crowds, talking about loss and workplace safety. But a tragedy when she was 16 reshaped her life and, ultimately, her purpose.
Her father, Darcy Cromwell, worked as a tube bender at a nuclear boiler facility for nearly 15 years. “My dad was a very funny guy, a jokester, hard-working. He did everything he could for his family,” says Harris.
Cromwell was healthy until shortly before his death. He was exposed over many years to benzene contained in solvents used to lubricate tubes before bending. He was eventually diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and died at 42. For Harris and her family, there was no clear “incident” to point to—only grief and questions.
“The way the doctor described it, it’s not like he fell off a ladder,” Harris recalls. “It was years down the line when putting pieces together after getting the autopsy and seeing what was in his system and then what he was working with.”
That delayed recognition is part of what makes occupational disease so insidious. Workers and families may not connect the dots until years after exposures.
From isolated grief to finding a community
For nearly two decades after her father’s death, Harris grieved largely in isolation. “Losing him the way I did, it was very much like a, I felt alone. And my family… we all sort of grieved alone. We went separate ways.”
It wasn’t until 2018, after a repetitive strain injury at her own workplace forced her off the assembly line and back to college, that she discovered Threads of Life during a school project. The national charity supports families affected by workplace fatalities, life-altering injuries and occupational disease through peer support, family forums and opportunities to share their stories.
Finding the organization came at a time when she was ready to turn her pain into prevention. “I guess I was more healed, more in my journey to want to just advocate… It was just more of wanting to get his message out there,” she explains.
Steps for Life: honouring families, funding prevention
Today, Harris is not only a Threads of Life family spokesperson but also co‑chair of the Steps for Life committee in Kitchener‑Waterloo and the 2026 national spokesperson for the campaign. Steps for Life – Walking for Families of Workplace Tragedy is Threads of Life’s largest fundraiser, with walks in communities across Canada and a virtual option so people can participate wherever they are. Funds raised support programs such as peer support and family forums, while the walks themselves help raise awareness about prevention.
“Steps for Life has given me and my children a way to honour my dad who they didn’t get to meet,” Harris says. For her, the campaign is about remembrance, community and culture change.
That culture change starts, she believes, with workers understanding risks and speaking up. “What I wish people knew about workplace safety is you need to advocate for yourself because you have to live in your body and your family wants you to come home at the end of the day.” She has seen firsthand how everyday products and processes can conceal serious long‑term hazards.
Harris urges workers to read safety data sheets, understand the personal protective equipment they require, and not to dismiss chronic exposures just because there is no immediate injury. “It’s not something that may affect you one time you use it. But if you are using it over and over again… you don’t really realize,” she notes.
A message of hope for safer workplaces
The stakes are high. “Every year in Canada, a thousand people like my father die because of work and thousands more are injured or made ill,” she says. Those left behind face physical, emotional and financial impacts that can last a lifetime.
For Harris, Steps for Life embodies both remembrance and resilience. “It’s a message of hope, honestly. It’s that there is life after tragedy. There is community, regardless of where you came from or what your background is.” She wants fewer families to join what she calls a club no one wants to join—families forever changed by workplace tragedy—but she also wants those who do to know they are not alone.
As she looks ahead, Harris hopes the next generation of Canadian workers enters workplaces where health and safety are truly non‑negotiable and where questions about exposure, PPE and long‑term risk are welcomed, not brushed aside. For her, sharing her father’s story is one way to push that vision forward so that “my dad’s story can live on, that he didn’t die in vain, that someone else can remember my words… and not suffer the same fate.”
Canadians can learn more about Threads of Life and find a local or virtual walk at stepsforlife.ca.
