It’s stories like the one below that make my heart hurt. They make me want to do everything possible to help other’s. It makes me love my life more. (I almost feel selfish) It helps me see the light in my own life when there’s relative fog or drizzle. It helps me believe that people can give, give, give because they truly care…
Dying UVic student receives degree from hospital bed
By Katie Derosa, Times Colonist
There are a lot of things Eva Markvoort wanted to do before she dies. Despite her failing health, the University of Victoria student, who has cystic fibrosis, wanted to finish her bachelor degree. In the end, it proved impossible.
On Wednesday, however, the 25-year-old theatre student received her fine arts degree from her hospital bed at Vancouver General Hospital, as faculty members scrambled to get it to her before it was too late.
Markvoort, who is from New Westminster, became too ill to continue at UVic in January 2007. While she repeatedly tried to finish the two electives she needed, her illness left her too weak.
“She was almost there but not quite,” said her father, Bill Markvoort. “So for the university to give her a full degree with distinction was such a beautiful thing.”
In October 2007, Markvoort, who wanted to be an actress, underwent a double lung transplant but is now in chronic rejection. She’s been in hospital for the last month, Bill Markvoort said, and there’s nothing the doctors can do but ease her pain.
Her sister, Annie, a third-year science and geography student, told her biology professor, David Creasey, about her sister’s failing health on Tuesday. Creasey got the ball rolling and several faculty members helped move along a typically bureaucratic process in a matter of 24 hours.
By Wednesday evening, Markvoort was proudly holding a framed copy of her bachelor’s degree.
“It’s not just the piece of paper — it’s that a bunch of people went to that effort on her behalf,” her father said. “I was astounded.”
The degree now hangs on the wall of her hospital room, along with letters and cards sent from people across the world.
An award-winning documentary, 65_RedRoses, that documented her fight with cystic fibrosis, and her blog of the same name have earned Markvoort an international following.
Markvoort spent her life trying to raise awareness about the disease and encouraging people to become organ donors.
Last week, the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation awarded her the Doug Summerhayes award, recognizing her commitment to the cause.
Jan Wood, a professor in the theatre department who taught Markvoort for four years, visited her student in hospital yesterday and said she was thrilled to get the degree. “She was an inspiration while she was [at UVic] and she’s still an inspiration,” Wood said. “We’re incredibly proud to have her as one of our alumni.
Wood said in her 14 years at the university, she’s never seen a degree expedited like this. “It’s very extraordinary but it matched Eva’s extraordinary personality.”
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/health/Dying+UVic+student+receives+degree+from+hospital/2624014/story.html#ixzz0gsjRoM6y
