Lifestyle
Ariana Baio
Nov 29, 2022
content.jwplatform.com
An online community has rallied together to raise money for a man who applied for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) because he could not afford to live.
Amir Farsoud, a 54-year-old man living in St Catharines, Canada, had been living off food payouts and government housing after becoming disabled in an accident several years ago.
Farsoud lives with degenerative disc disorder, spinal stenosis, spondylosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) according to the St Catharines Standard.
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The man's disabilities have caused him to live in constant, debilitating pain.
"My best day is about a six to a six and a half, my worst day is about a nine," Farsoud told St Catharines Standard. "There’s days I can’t get out of bed."
Then Farsoud found out the building he was living in was being sold, leaving him with very few affordable housing options.
Between living in constant pain and the threat of homelessness near, Farsoud decided to apply for MAiD.
“Death is something that petrifies me, and I was going to tough it out as long as I possibly could until we got to the landlord saying the place is up for sale,” he said.
Man no longer considering medically-assisted death following outpouring of supportwww.youtube.com
But things changed after a woman named Effie C decided to start a GoFundMe for Farsoud.
"Please, everyone, my goal is to raise enough money for him to be able to pay his rent and for food for the next seven years so he can apply and move into affordable housing and show him hope," Effie C wrote in the description.
"We need humanity to win."
Over 1,200 people donated to Effie's "Choose 2 Live!" campaign for Farsoud, leading to over $60,000 in donations.
Now, Farsoud is reconsidering his application to MAiD.
He told Ottawa City News, “I honestly thought by December I wouldn’t be here. So no, I certainly did not envision this by any stretch of the imagination."
“It’s amazing what an act of kindness can do,” Farsoud said. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible the kindness and humanity and compassion I saw, I didn’t think it existed anymore. It does.”
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