Captain (Ret’d) Hélène Le Scelleur enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces in March 1990, when she was only 17 years old. She joined the first female cohort in the infantry trade at the Régiment de Maisonneuve in Montreal. Hélène's love of service to her country led her to join the Regular Forces in 1999, where she served a further 17 years, primarily as a healthcare administrator. During her long career, Hélène has had numerous assignments and deployments, notably in the former Yugoslavia, on two occasions, and in Afghanistan, between 2007 and 2008. Due to the recognition of her work in Afghanistan, Hélène received a commendation from the Commander of the Expeditionary Forces Command and was chosen to be the Aide-de-Camp to the former Governor General of Canada, the very Honorable Michaëlle Jean. Sadly, Hélène's career came to an end in 2016, following a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder linked to her last mission in Afghanistan. Deciding not to give up in the face of this irreversible decision, she pledged to pursue doctoral studies aimed at finding new solutions to deal with the identity crisis that follows the transition to civilian life of military personnel living with an operational stress injury.[
