Mr. Speaker, on March 14, 2014, Dave and Maureen Jenkins lost their incredible daughter from complications from an aggressive rogue cell cancer that had previously gone undiagnosed. Together with their son, Evan, they have started the Maggie Project.
Currently in Canada, over 10,000 children are undergoing treatment and approximately another 1,700 families will be given this devastating diagnosis annually.
Last month was Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, but these families must face the challenges of cancer every day.
I would like to share an excerpt from a poem that Maggie wrote in grade 6, prior to her passing, titled “I am”:
I am a strong, helpful farm girl.
I wonder if there will be farmers in the future.
I hear dairy cows "moo" in the distance.
I see heifers grazing in the distance.
I want to show my 4-H calf and get first in show.
I am a strong, helpful farm girl.
I thank Dave, Maureen, and Evan for asking me to make this statement. It is an honour to know all of them and to have known Maggie. May her positive, powerful, protected, and peacemaker memory live on forever.