N.S. woman opens up about her decision to die and having a ‘living funeral’

A Nova Scotia woman has defied convention and societal norms by hosting her own living funeral, allowing people to celebrate her while she's still around.

At 39 years old, April Hubbard is trying to change conversations around death, even as she approaches her own.

“I always kind of thought that I would have to end my own life at some point in some way, even before MAID (medical assistance in dying) was legalized in Canada,” she says. “But I don’t think anybody expected it to be this soon for me and for me to have such a quick decline suddenly.”

She hasn’t chosen a date, but says she started the application process last year and was approved after more than seven months. She expects she may carry out the decision in the next few months.

When she was 17, Hubbard was diagnosed with tethered cord syndrome, a condition in which the spinal cord becomes attached to the tissue surrounding the spinal column. Physicians discovered she had two growths at the base of her spine that were damaging her nerves.

She uses a wheelchair and has lived with debilitating pain for years. But she says numerous surgeries and medical treatments have led to multiple system organ failure.

For decades, Hubbard has been an outspoken advocate in the disability community and realizes her choice to seek MAID can be controversial.

But she insists some of that stems from fear, part of the reason she’s gone public with her decision.

“I think it’s really important for me, especially as a disabled person, because a lot of folks in the disability community in particular are very against MAID, because they feel it’s being used as a tool against the disabled community. But for me, I think we need to have those conversations,” she says.