University of Victoria expedites degree for dying student

VICTORIA – There are a lot of things Eva Markvoort wants to do before she dies.

Despite her failing health, the University of Victoria student, who has cystic fibrosis, wanted to finish her bachelor’s degree. In the end, it proved physically impossible.

But last week, the 25-year-old theatre student received her fine arts degree from her bed at Vancouver General Hospital, as faculty members scrambled to get to her before it was too late.

Markvoort, from the Vancouver suburb of New Westminster, became too ill to continue at her studies in January 2007. While she repeatedly tried to finish the two electives she needed, her illness left her too weak.

“She was almost there but not quite,” said her father, Bill Markvoort. “So for the university to give her a full degree with distinction was such a beautiful thing.”

In October 2007, the aspiring actress had a double lung transplant but her body rejected the donated organs.

She’s been in hospital for the last month, her father said, and there’s nothing the doctors can do but ease her pain.

Her sister Annie, a third-year science and geography student at the university, told her biology professor David Creasey about her sister’s failing health on Tuesday.

Creasey contacted other faculty members about Markvoort’s illness and by Wednesday evening, she was proudly holding a framed copy of her bachelor’s degree.

“It’s not just the piece of paper. It’s that a bunch of people went to that effort on her behalf,” her father said. “I was astounded.”

The degree now hangs on the wall of her hospital room, along with letters and cards sent from people across the world.

An award-winning documentary, 65 RedRoses, that documented her fight with cystic fibrosis, and her blog of the same name have earned Markvoort an international following.

Markvoort spent her life trying to raise awareness about the disease and encouraging people to become organ donors.

Last week, the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation awarded her contribution.

Jan Wood, a professor in the theatre department who taught Markvoort for four years, visited her student in hospital Saturday and said she was thrilled to get the degree.

“She was an inspiration while she was [at the university] and she’s still an inspiration,” Wood said. “We’re incredibly proud to have her as one of our alumni.

Wood said in her 14 years at the university, she’s never seen a degree expedited like this.

“It’s very extraordinary but it matched Eva’s extraordinary personality.”