{"id":2569,"date":"2024-09-04T13:15:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T19:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liver.ca\/event\/stroller-spotlight-april\/"},"modified":"2025-01-22T11:03:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T18:03:30","slug":"pleins-feux-sur-les-poussettes-avril","status":"publish","type":"event","link":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/event\/stroller-spotlight-april\/","title":{"rendered":"Pleins feux sur les poussettes : Avril"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-2569","event","type-event","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"start_date":null,"end_date":null,"location":"","blocks":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"

Meet April, a 16-year participant in the Stroll for Liver<\/a>, a national event we welcome you to join by registering today. She strolls to honour her nephew Matthew, who lost his life just as his world was opening up to him.<\/p>

Part of a large, close-knit family in Springhill, Nova Scotia, April first learned about liver disease in 1997 when her sister Cathy\u2019s son was diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis<\/a> \u2013 inflammatory scarring and narrowing of the bile ducts.<\/p>

To combat his condition, Matthew had a successful liver transplant in Halifax at 19, with family by his side every step of the way.<\/p>

But a few years later his health waned, requiring dialysis, and a second transplant. The surgery worked but sadly, a virus took his life at the tender age of 24.<\/p>

The loss devastated his community, especially given his promising trajectory as an engineering student and the selfless courage he displayed as a volunteer firefighter.<\/p>

In 2007, April rallied family and friends for their first stroll as Team Matthew Meekins, who to date have raised thousands of dollars for liver awareness, support programs, and research.<\/p>

Honoured by the Canadian Liver Foundation with a medal for \u201c15 years of bringing liver research to life\u201d, April and Cathy stroll every May 8 on Matthew\u2019s birthday, alongside four generations from grandma to grandkids, waving their banner and handing out brochures about liver health along the way.<\/p>

Even though they participated as a group, this year\u2019s Stroll is still virtual, with Canadians participating in their own way (any physical activity counts), then sharing their experiences August 28.<\/p>

Matthew had a collection of elephant ornaments and he adopted the elephant as his symbol. Soon April\u2019s walk will be augmented by getting a special elephant tattoo. She feels hopeful for the future of liver research. Will you join her? Will you join her? liver.ca\/stroll-for-liver<\/a><\/p>","remove_heading_underline":false}],"sponsors":null,"title":"Pleins feux sur les poussettes : Avril","text":"","image":null,"landing_page":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/2569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/event"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}