From Laurie, Harry's Wife:
Dear Team Harry member,
It’s with a broken heart I post this news today.
Yesterday, Harry made the decision to end his life with MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying). As we laid in bed holding each other, he said this is the hardest thing I have ever done in life, such a brave man. While holding my hand he simply said “I Love you Bunkie”. I am so sad and devastated and still cannot come to terms with the end of a life of this incredible, amazing human that has been by my side for 31 years. He finally received his blood numbers Thursday night after a huge community celebration for him and it was terrible, his cancer was now taking over 60% of his blood. That night he was struggling with his breath and to swallow. By 6am, he was ready to go. I phoned doctors, MAID and close friends started to arrive.
Given such short notice we all waited two long hours for the approval. If it wasn’t on Friday, we would have waited until Monday and he would have been in pain for days. Harry continually had friends around his bed the last five days. When it was too much for him, he would simply tell them to leave now.
I can’t thank our communities enough, the flow of LOVE we have received during this journey has been absolutely mind blowing. We could count on those daily calls and check-ins to help push us further to our goal of a healthy and happy Harry.
Harry's Military College buddies sent him an amazing video of 40 tributes and messages of love to him. The night before he passed away he was restless and could not sleep. I brought this to his bed and we both watched in amazement and listened to all the stories of a young Harry and winning that “Yellow Shirt” for his athleticism. That video brought him so much joy, thanks to his Buds. We laughed, talked about all his motor bikes and crazy trips and how fit he was, which he said was not big deal. At one point he said, what’s going on here, everyone is getting old? Yes, we are honey. After all the messages, I told him thank god we did not use a dating app when we met, we never would have been matched up at all. Our hook up was one of pure explosive passion of life and a bit of kryptonite. He filled my life with love, incredible adventures, unwavering love, loyalty and laughter. I hit the jackpot with this man. He promised me to build our new house and I told him I will and the first big party will be full of all the love for him from all his friends.
The day before Harry passed away an amazing event happened at our house. His kiting community did a sail by and put on a fabulous show for him, it was the ABSOLUTE best display of love for him ever. Friends that were not on the water were on our backyard and champagne flowed. It took all his energy to get down to the rocky shore, but he insisted on going down on his own; coming back he required help and collapsed. He was overwhelmed with the love of his community and asked where was his glass of bubbly. Here is an article posted here in Victoria.
https://bit.ly/2OXvhDv
We will not be holding a funeral service or anything formal for Harry. Stay tuned for any further details as we give more thought to this.
If you feel inclined to make a donation on Harry’s behalf, below are organizations we both will be supporting going-forward as a family foundation of funds.
Canadian Blood Sevices – There is always a huge demand for blood and platelets folks, just your time is required not your money. For every bag of platelets Harry received it took 5 wonderful donors, that’s a lot of amazing people.
Please book a time to visit a location close to you.
https://www.blood.ca/en
Stem Cell Registration - If you are between the ages of 17-35, please consider registering to be a bone marrow donor.
https://www.blood.ca/en/stemcells/donat ... tion-works
BMT – Even though we failed at the transplant, we will go on to support this amazing team in the future.
http://support.vghfoundation.ca/site/Pa ... rding.html
KATS (Kids at Tennis) – We both highly support this Victoria group which provides tennis to support challenged children in our community. We were both volunteers with this organization and is managed by Sy Silverberg, an amazing man.
https://kidsattennis.ca/
B.C. Marine Parks Forever – We both absolutely love our islands and of all sizes, the Gulf Island’s were our playground all year round.
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charitie ... er-society