I want to write a little entry about a beautiful, talented
young Canadian named Eva Markvoort, who just died at age 25 from cystic
fibrosis.

Over the last four years, she helped CF sufferers and inspired thousands of others with her open and honest blog. An award-winning
documentary was made about her perilous, months-long wait for a double lung transplant in 2007.
(If that link doesn’t work
for you, you can still see a trailer for it on YouTube.)

I discovered that, because CF is a childhood disease,
often its victims learn about it when they are too young to pronounce the name.
Instead, they call it “sixty-five roses.”
Eva was a writer, an artist and an actor, and with her
looks and talent she should have gone on to be a star of stage and screen. What
she wanted more than anything from all of us is for us to get up right away and
to make sure that we are all registered organ donors. Please consider doing this right now, in memory of lovely Eva.

CG

P.S. I sometimes write about the greatness of the Canadian healthcare system, which certainly has saved my own life while preserving my financial wellbeing. Here is Eva’s own take on it, written in her blog on September 6, 2009:

As a side note to my American friends….I met with my CF social worker
who has already spoken with the social worker in Toronto and
pre-arranged to have all the paperwork sorted out for me, I can do it
online and am never without coverage. The docs willingly send me with
more than enough free meds with additional supplemental antibiotics
just in case and are more than happy to send me more meds in the mail
should I require them.
If politicians tell you that public
healthcare in Canada doesn’t get the patients the treatments they need
when they need them…they are LYING! Even switching from being on
disability in BC to having a fulltime job with coverage in a different
province hasn’t been difficult at all although I will keep you posted
on how it goes once I get there.
[...]
I feel so
grateful that decisions regarding my healthcare are made by deciding
what is best for me as the patient and not by who pays them or what
insurance will cover. All the doctors here are paid by the government
and therefor there is no denying care and there is no stealing patients
or hiding information or any form of non-compliance in sharing
information. We are all on the same team working as hard as we can to
keep me healthy and I find such great comfort in that.
There is no stress in my life to pay copays or medical bills.
I have been on disability since before transplant which meant that the
months where I wasn’t able to work the government provided me with
enough money to pay rent and groceries, and if I was able to work then
they assured I made enough, making up the difference if my pay was
lower. And if I did make more then enough that month then I didn’t
receive the supplemental income. It was a safety net. And even now
moving to Toronto for this full time job I am giving up my disability
file in BC but I checked with my social worker and if it doesn’t work
out, if I get sick and have to move home, my file is easily re-opened
and my medications are instantly free again.
I am ever grateful to be Canadian.