• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Sunday, January 17, 2021
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home Health

Angee Acquin has built her career improving the lives of at-risk kids. Now she needs her community’s help to save her own.

by Oscar Baker
March 17, 2018
2 min read

Angee Acquin who needs a kidney is raising awareness about organ donation in the indigenous population. Photo by Oscar Baker.

Angee Acquin dreams one day of being a little old woman with traditional regalia and shawls hanging over head in her tent, her grandchildren running around and laughing in her home in St. Mary’s. But the 41-year-old youth support worker now worries that may not be the case because her kidney is only functioning at 12 per cent after 15 years living with Type 1 diabetes.

Diabetes is a blood sugar disease that has ravaged First Nation communities. Diabetes Canada says First Nation people are three to five times more like to suffer from the glucose level disease.

Enter her mom, who has started an awareness campaign on Angee’s behalf by selling hoodies that dare people to “Be a Superhero Donate a Kidney.” There are already 50 in circulation.

“My mom wants to see her baby better,” said Acquin, who has been overwhelmed by the amount of people who are willing to go through the screening process to see if they are a match.

Acquin’s father died from complications related to Type 1 diabetes.

“I want to feel better,” she said. “I was scared because Dad was walking and talking one Saturday and by the end day he had total organ failure.”

She said her resilience comes out because she doesn’t let it get her down. She’d rather make people laugh and feel comfortable, but it comes off too casual at times and so people don’t think she’s that sick. But now the gravity of the situation is starting to set in.

Acquin, who will soon start dialysis, is hoping a new kidney will help get her way of life go back to normal. She’s extremely fatigued because diabetes affects the blood flow and sometimes can damage internal organs. Three years ago Acquin had a massive heart attack.

Acquin is a Wolstaq woman born and raised in Fredericton but now owns a home in St. Mary’s First Nation. She’s an activist, a traditional singer and works as a support worker at Devon middle school with at risk First Nations youth.

“If you sit them down and talk them through it they can get through most problems,” said Acquin.

She said the job is both heartbreaking and fulfilling. Acquin says some students have to deal with parents struggling with substance and alcohol abuse problems and some don’t have running water. But the reward is watching them grow into young adults and learn how to deal with issues on their own.

“I wish I could take them all in forever,” said Acquin.

She wants to be healthy again to continue in her activism and helping the kids. Acquin said she worked for years educating people about diabetes and healthcare but now she’s dealing with it.

“I never really had problems with anything else. Myy body was like go big or go home have a massive heart attack, need a kidney,” said Acquin with a smile.

This article was first published by Wicked Ideas.

Oscar Baker is an award-winning multimedia reporter from Elsipogtog First Nation and St. Augustine, Florida. Follow him on Twitter @oggycane4lyfe.

 

Tags: Angee AcquindiabeteshealthindigenousOscar BakersliderSt. Mary's First NationWicked IdeasWolastoq
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

“Our people will still step up”: Panel reviews treaty rights in light of attacks on Mi’kmaw fishers
Indigenous

“Our people will still step up”: Panel reviews treaty rights in light of attacks on Mi’kmaw fishers

November 23, 2020

Mi'kmaw and Wolastoqiyik scholars say that treaty rights must be respected as Mi'kmaw fishers in Nova Scotia face hostility and...

“We are here to protect our ancestors”: Treaty people come together in face of crisis
Indigenous

“We are here to protect our ancestors”: Treaty people come together in face of crisis

November 3, 2020

In October, treaty people on the unceded territories of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik organized a series of actions in defence...

Wolastoqey and Fredericton allies rally in solidarity with Mi’kmaw lobster fishers
Canada

Wolastoqey and Fredericton allies rally in solidarity with Mi’kmaw lobster fishers

October 22, 2020

Today, close to 200 people gathered over the noon hour at the New Brunswick Legislature in Fredericton to support the...

Indigenous

Wolastoq Grand Council on NBEX lands: “We are not simply ‘stakeholders’ to be ‘engaged'”

October 1, 2020

Editor's note: On the evening of September 30 at the city of Fredericton's engagement session on future plans for the...

Load More

Recommended

Refugees Welcome! Rally on Fredericton on Saturday

5 years ago

Egyptian authorities continue to detain Canadian filmmaker and emergency physician

7 years ago

Subsidized manufacturing company fires workers after they sign up to unionize

7 years ago

Fredericton postal worker’s trip to Palestine smeared by Conservative MP in House of Commons

8 years ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In