After a six-year battle with cancer, a Syrian refugee living in Calgary has passed away, leaving behind his wife and two young children.
Majd Tahhouf was granted permission to come Canada with his wife, four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter in March 2015.
According to Sam Nammoura, family friend and co-founder of the Calgary Syrian Refugee Support Group, Tahhouf was receiving chemotherapy for lung cancer. On Saturday, the 29-year-old man passed away.
“The community has really felt the pain of this family (over the past year),” Nammoura said. “The online fundraiser is a statement of how well-supported they have been.”
When it became clear Tahhouf might not make it, his father and mother were sponsored to come to Canada to say goodbye.
“I want him to be remembered as a loving person – kind,” Walid Tahhouf, Majd’s father, said through an interpreter. “We were friends. He used to tell me everything.”
“He loved his kids so much. I’ve never seen a father love his kids the way he used to,” friend Mohammad Alhammoud said.
“The community has really felt the pain of this family (over the past year),” Nammoura said. “The online fundraiser is a statement of how well-supported they have been.”
A GoFundMe campaign was set up late Saturday and by Monday afternoon, more than $60,000 had already been raised.
The money will help ensure the family is able to pay rent, buy food, pay for transportation and daycare.
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