Farha, who fought AIDS in son’s honour, dies
Evelyn Farha, a longtime HIV/AIDS advocate and head of the Farha Foundation, died Thursday night. She was 92.
Saying she lived a “long and fruitful life,” the foundation confirmed her death on Friday.
“It was an honour for her to devote the past 25 years of her life to the HIV/AIDS community,” it said in a statement.
Farha’s son, Ron, died after a six-year battle with the illness in 1993. He had launched the foundation with the personal goal of funding enough research to find a cure for HIV/AIDS.
Following his death, Farha picked up where her son left off.
She headed the foundation, often described as Quebec’s leading HIV/AIDS fundraising organization, for more than 20 years and participated in its annual walkathon every year since 1993.
In 2013, battling arthritis, she gave up her wheelchair in favour of leaning on her walker for the entire seven-kilometre march.
“I want to create an image of how important it is,” she told the Montreal Gazette at the time. “I have to walk. And I want to be there at the finish line with everyone else.”
For more than 20 years, Farha raised awareness about the disease in schools and conferences. She was also known to spark up conversations with teenagers she would encounter on the street.
She was often recognized for her tireless work, becoming the recipient of awards from the Governor General on two occasions and receiving the medal of the National Assembly in 2013.
“I never thought I’d have the capacity to do it. It’s surprising when you’re forced into something what you can do,” Farha told the Montreal Gazette in 2009 when asked about continuing her son’s dream and becoming a public figure associated with such a tragic illness.
“Maybe my son was right when he asked me to be the mother behind the foundation,” she said.
“We’re a good family; my husband was in business. It shows people that it doesn’t only happen to kids on the street — it can happen to anyone.”
The Farha Foundation, which merged with the Fondation québécoise du Sida in 2017, is credited with giving more than $10 million to Quebec organizations helping HIV/AIDS victims.