Madam Speaker, I am extremely pleased to rise today in support of Bill C-316. I would like to thank the member for Calgary Confederation for bringing this forward.
One of my friends once told me that the best speeches are given from the heart, that it is not about great notes or somebody who writes us a good speech. My speech today is coming from the heart. I am going to tell a little story about Nick. I did speak to Nick and I asked him if I could speak in the House on why this was so important and why it was important to him.
I first met Nick 21 years ago when he showed up at my door with my oldest son. He was an eight year old. As soon as he walked into the house, I noticed he was coughing. I asked him if had a really bad cold and he said, no, that he had a chronic disease called cystic fibrosis and because of that he had a hard time breathing and a lot of digestive problems. He explained the whole disease to me. Nick became a huge part of our lives. He was my son's best friend through his whole time growing up.
Nick's medication was kept in our cupboards. Oftentimes Nick would spend the night and he needed it to survive. Nick would come to the cottage with us and he would bring his breathing machine and his medications, but he never let it slow him down. There were a couple of times as Nick was growing up that he ended up in intensive care in the Halifax hospital because of his condition. A number of times we sat our son down, because they were very close, they had been friends since they were very young, and we told him we did not know if Nick would get out of the hospital. We had those conversations and we always knew it was a possibility. It was always really tough, when dealing with a young child and our own kids, trying to explain to them that this could happen.
Nick was amazing. He continued to beat the odds and he got out of the hospital both times. I remember when the Children's Wish Foundation asked him what his wish would be. Unfortunately, at that point in his life, he was very sick. He said that what he really wanted to do was make memories with his best friends. Therefore, Nick, my son and one of their other friends went to the big city for the weekend. The foundation gave them money to go shopping. They went to movies, ate steaks and they made memories. To this day, at 29 years old, when they get together, they still talk about it. It was just such a wonderful thing.
However, as everyone else was moving on, going to school and getting degrees, Nick was struggling more and more as he got older. Nick continued to go to university. He would oftentimes go for a semester and then have to take a semester off because he was too sick to continue. His dream was to become an architect. He continued to go to university and then he would take time off because of his health.
About a year and a half ago, Nick got very sick. I remember talking to him and him saying to me, “It's like I'm breathing through a straw”. If we think about that, how would that feel? Every breath we take and feeling like we are breathing through a straw.
Nick was put on the waiting list for a double lung transplant and he continued to deteriorate. One of the challenges for individuals who are that sick is having to deal with this. We live in a province that does not do transplants. Nick had to go to Toronto to have this transplant. His family needed $20,000 to be raised in our community in order for him to live there while he waited. Unfortunately, Nick ended up in intensive care on life support, waiting, because he was failing so badly.
However, this is a great news story. In July, Nick got a double lung transplant. It was a 10-hour surgery. He was on life support before the surgery. He is doing great. He is out of the hospital. He is back home. He says that he will never take for granted every breath he takes. One of the things he is also very cognizant of is that somebody else died in order for him to have the transplant.
It took almost two years for him to get a lung transplant. It is so important for us to sign donor cards and to ensure we have bills like this that will encourage more people to become donors so people like Nick are not left waiting for two years.
I am really pleased Nick is doing as well as he is. I want to thank the member opposite for the bill. It is very important that we continue to support these initiatives, that we continue to work with the provinces and territories and ensure we play a leadership role in transplants, ensuring they are available to people.
It would be great if there were some way we could also support people financially so the communities do not have to raise as much money to send people to places like Toronto for their surgeries.