She was born Satinder Kaur Ahluwalia in New Delhi;[2] her father Manohar Singh Ahluwalia was a communications officer under Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru.[3] She moved to Canada with her family at age 5, settling in Sturgis, Saskatchewan.[2][3] After graduating high school, she moved to Saskatoon and studied at the Kelsey Institute, receiving a diploma in nursing in 1981.[3][4] While in Saskatoon she met her husband Ralph Hawkins; the two divorced in the 1990s.[3]
She attended the School of Nursing of Foothills Hospital and the University of Calgary, graduating with a BN in 1988,[4][5] and eventually became head nurse at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary.[3] She also held a post-graduate certificate in neuroscience nursing from the Montreal Neurological Hospital, becoming one of the first nurses in Canada to be certified in the discipline by the Canadian Nurses Association,[6] and served as head nurse of neurosurgery at Foothills Hospital.[2] Hawkins then earned a law degree from the University of Calgary in 1994,[7] was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1995,[4] and set up her own company as a lawyer with an interest in medical-legal issues.[2][3]
She was re-elected in 2001 in the redistributed riding of Kelowna-Mission by a margin of 12,285 votes,[8] and was appointed to the cabinet that June by Premier Gordon Campbell to serve as Minister of Health Planning.[9] In that role she was responsible for a long-term strategy for training more doctors and nurses in British Columbia. As a result, the province added medical school campuses at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, the University of Victoria, and at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna.[2] Her position was abolished in a January 2004 cabinet shuffle, and she was re-assigned as Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations.[9]
After winning re-election in 2005 by 5,638 votes,[8] Hawkins was named Deputy Speaker of the Legislature that September.[6]
Cancer diagnosis, death
In 2004, Hawkins was diagnosed with leukemia and waged a high-profile battle with the illness; she was saved as a result of a bone marrow transplant from her sister.[3] Hawkins campaigned for cancer research and bone marrow donation awareness.[10] The cancer recurred in late 2007, and she underwent another bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy.[11] On November 17, 2008, Hawkins announced that she would not run for re-election in 2009.[12][13]
She began treatment for leukemia for the third time in March 2009.[14] She died on September 21, 2010 at her eldest sister's home in Calgary, a week after her 52nd birthday.[3][15][16] In her honour, the cancer centre in Kelowna was renamed the BC Cancer Agency Sindi Ahluwalia Hawkins Centre for the Southern Interior.[3][15][17]