Eva Markvoort

Who was Eva Markvoort?

Eva Markvoort was a young woman from New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada who died from cystic fibrosis at the age of 25. She blogged about her life, family and experiences, including undergoing a lung transplant and her subsequent transplant rejection, in her blog "65_Redroses," which is also the name of a documentary film about her, 65 Redroses.

Eva's online identity is based on Canadian cystic fibrosis community lore that "65 roses" is a malapropism among children with the disease for “cystic fibrosis”. Eva added 'red' because it was her favourite colour.

Despite early success following her double lung transplant in 2007, Markvoort died on March 27, 2010 at Vancouver General Hospital after a long battle with transplant rejection, while awaiting a second lung transplant. Shortly before her death, the 25-year-old theatre student received her degree from the University of Victoria at her hospital bedside.

On March 25, Markvoort wrote the last post on her blog:

Markvoort had recorded an emotional farewell video on February 11, saying she likely had only days to live. These last spoken words to her web community drew more than 150,000 views in less than 24 hours. In addition to her degree, she also received the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Doug Summerhayes award for outstanding commitment to the cause. She was also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal.