A Penticton teen who has been living with a rare and deadly disease while braving years of teasing and torment is spending some of her final days speaking up so others can understand the impact of bullying.
“A lot of people told me to kill myself,” Kourtney Saviskoff said.
The hurtful words from schoolmates still reverberate in the 19-year-old’s head and she gets emotional just thinking about how much she was judged for being different.
At just seven months old, Saviskoff was diagnosed with Byler’s Syndrome, a disease which prevents her liver from being able to filter out toxins.
“People would call me a vampire girl or said I was a Simpson character or that I was a snake or I looked like a snake because my eyes were yellow,” Saviskoff said.
Doctors told Saviskoff’s family that she is only one of three people in Canada with Byler’s Syndrome.
She said her peers didn’t understand her battle.
Although she has lived under the shadow of death her whole life, her health has recently gotten much worse.
“My arm is all swollen compared to the other one, my hands are swollen and my legs are swollen,” she said.
“I feel it getting closer and closer… I feel like it could be next week to next month.”
The brave young woman is spending her last days in a Penticton hospice.
She’s the youngest resident there and in the short time she has left, she’s committed to her anti-bullying efforts.
“Everybody should be nice to each other and stop bullying each other because it hurts and you don’t know what the person is going through,” she said.
She’s also committed to raising awareness about her rare disease.
“I’d like a doctor to go to the States and do more research on it because what if there is another child born with it?”
In her short life, Saviskoff has been through a lot, including the loss of her newborn son in 2013.
She’ll leave behind many memories including with her mother and her fiancé. They’re memories she is working to compile in a slideshow presentation to play at her own celebration of life.
“My story has inspired so many people which makes me really happy,” she said.
While very weak physically, Saviskoff is working hard to ensure she leaves behind a legacy of strength and perseverance, intertwined in her message of tolerance and understanding.