The world needs more people like her

Poster courtesy of CBC

I don’t know where to begin when it comes to Eva Markvoort.

I have never met this fiery-haired, feisty woman, but she has inspired and touched me in a way that has truly changed my life.

Last week, Eva thought she was going to die in a matter of days. The 23 year-old from B.C. has cystic fibrosis and needs a new set of lungs. She was told by her doctors that her life was fading away, and she started to say her goodbyes.

Cystic fibrosis is the most common, fatal, genetic disease affecting Canadian children and young adults. Like many ad campaigns allude to, it is like “drowning on the inside” as CF patients’ lungs fill with mucus which makes breathing very difficult.

Eva was the subject of a documentary called 65_redroses, which aired at HotDocs in Toronto. (I can’t watch the trailer without crying.) The title comes from her LiveJournal‘s pseudonym, which is also the way many children with CF mispronounce the name of the disease. The doc shows how Eva connects with two other CF patients online in the U.S. as she waits for a lung transplant. In the film, she is at the top of the list, waiting for someone to die so she can have a life-saving double lung transplant. The transplant occurs, but her story doesn’t end there. Since the making of the film, after being healthy for awhile, Eva has taken a turn for the worse and needs yet another set of lungs to keep her alive.

Eva’s blog has touched people around the world from those who have CF to those like me who are simply inspired by her story, her will to live, and her capacity to love.

This week, there is hope. She is back on the transplant list and feeling better. But every day and every breath is a struggle.

Yet in the face of death, Eva chooses to remind all her readers to love. The message in all of her posts is ultimately about keeping those you love close to your heart and never letting them go. Her heart is worn on her sleeve as she lets us into her hospital room, introduces her family, discusses boyfriends (past and present) and opens herself up to the world.

So many people are afraid to tell the ones they care about how they feel. Eva is telling the whole world.

She has opened my eyes and inspired me to dig a little deeper and love more openly. And I am just one of the many lives she has touched with her story. So Eva, if by chance you ever happen to read this, thank you. You are strong, beautiful and courageous. Never give up.

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