The Ontario government has given Maggie an ultimatum: the disabled teen can lose her funding or her independence.
It was a decision the former teacher and activist didn’t need to make.
By the time she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer, Maggie was already gone.
Despite intensive treatment, the 17-year-old was diagnosed with a second, more aggressive form known as high grade serous ovarian cancer, an aggressive, deadly form.
Her family and doctors made their own decisions and decided against chemotherapy. Maggie was only diagnosed last September.
Now, three months after returning home from the hospital, she is receiving chemotherapy every day.
She doesn’t have long to live, and as the weeks have passed, she says she and her family are fighting back the pain by “hanging onto life as much as we can.”
In a series of rare interviews, Maggie speaks passionately about the toll that her illness — and the battle she has waged to stay on top of it — has taken on her life and on her body.
Maggie was named last year as one of the top 100 young Canadians by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
We are at the point where she is literally fading. I am hoping that is at least temporary.
She is a student advocate, and the student representative on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Federation of Students.
On the morning that she learned she had ovarian cancer, she was driving to a job interview.
I had to drive four hours to get to the office. The bus would take me three hours.
I made my way to the interview and I was happy.
One of the things I’ve learned in life is that when you say you’re sorry, you are very nearly never going to get anywhere.
I wanted to see my friends again, but I made my way back to the house.
A lot of people
