Avis Favaro joined the CTV News team in 1992, and now jokingly refers to herself as the "network hypochondriac."
Since then has been nominated for an impressive 13 Geminis, winning once for a unique story on an experimental cancer treatment developed in Winnipeg in the 1940's. Most recently, she and producer Elizabeth St.Philip have won prizes at the Canadian Medical Association and Canadian Nurses Association annual media awards, for items on BPA in Food cans, and for a W5 item on a novel treatment for depression.
The highlight of her year has been documenting the novel condition called CCSVI – a disorder of vein drainage in patients with MS, travelling to Ferrara Italy with Elizabeth, to become the first in the world to report on the preliminary findings of Dr.Paolo Zamboni.
She has also won a Gold Medal at the 2005 New York Film and TV festival for a documentary on an experimental bone marrow treatment for Multiple Sclerosis.
She has also been awarded the Bronze World Medal from the New York Festivals in 2001 for "Cancer Doctors"; she took the International Health and Medical Media Award for "Ethics in Medical Research" in 2000; she was awarded the Bronze World Medal for Best News Correspondent at the New York Festivals in 1999. Prior to that, the Canadian Association of Journalists gave her the Investigative Award for "Whistleblower Doctor" in 1998; she won the Dan McArthur Award at RTNDA for "Seniors Sex".
She is ‘joined at the hip’ with medical unit producer and film-maker Elizabeth St.Philip - who recently won the International Health and Medical film competition (the Freddies) for a story on Asthma Surgery. Elizabeth has also worked for Discover and the CBC and has produced a critically acclaimed documentary Breakin' In for the National Film Board of Canada.
Prior to this, Avis worked at Global Television as the health correspondent. She has a degree in history from the University of Western Ontario and acquired her masters in journalism from UWO before launching her journalism career as a writer/reporter at Global in 1982.