18-year-old Noah Irvine came to share his story and mission with us on Wednesday, March 27. In early 2017, Noah wrote a letter about mental health to all 338 MPs across Canada to push for changes to our Mental Health system. Noah has lost both of his parents to mental health and he wants to make sure that no other child ends up in the situation that he did. Noah exemplifies this year's Rotary motto, Be the Inspiration. Thank you Noah for sharing your story.
Currently in his last year of high school, Noah Irvine is an activist for change to our mental health system. When he was five years old, his mother committed suicide and at fifteen, he lost his father to a drug overdose stemming from mental health. In grade ten, with the help of his grandfather, Noah looked up all 338 addresses for MPs across Canada, printed personalized letters, signed each one and mailed them out. That was in February of 2017. By June of 2017, Noah had only received 40 replies. That did not stop his efforts – he sent a press release to the media and has since started calling every MP in the country, as well as Mayors, ministers and more … even speaking to Prime Minister Trudeau.
Some of the key points that Noah shared in his press release:
- Canada is the only G7 country that does not have a national suicide prevention strategy
- The mental health disease burden in Ontario is 1.5 times higher than that of cancer and heart disease combined.
- Canada loses nearly 4000 people to this epidemic every year.
To read Noah’s letter, click here.
For more stories on Noah, click on the links below.
