VANCOUVER ACTIVIST FOUNDED NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM

John Turvey, a former drug addict who went on to become a champion of
the poor and downtrodden in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside for more
than three decades, has died. He was 61.

Turvey died last Wednesday morning in Comox, B.C. He had moved there
with his wife Deb after he was diagnosed almost four years ago with
mitochondrial myopathy, which interferes with nerve and muscle function.

Turvey was best known for founding the Vancouver needle exchange
program -- one of the first in Canada -- and the Downtown Eastside
Youth Activities Society (DEYAS).

The former social worker was forced to retire as executive director
of DEYAS after he was diagnosed with the fatal disease.

"He fought all his life for everybody else and this was his fight,"
recalled Deb, a former Downtown Eastside social worker. "He never
quit trying. He never gave up."

She said one of the highlights of her husband's life occurred in
March, when he was presented with the Order of Canada for his life's
work helping others.

"It was a very proud moment for him," she recalled, adding the
ceremony was held at the Comox recreation centre because John was too
ill to travel to Ottawa. "He had his grandson on his knee and his
family there."

Deb was John's full-time caregiver for the last three years, which
brought them closer, but his death still came as a shock, she said.
"I'm going to miss him so much."

At the time he was awarded the Order of Canada, Turvey told The
Vancouver Sun that his greatest achievement in life was discovering
the wonders of family with his wife and son, Chad, from another
marriage, who came into his life after years of estrangement.

"Here's a guy with little experience with a functional family,"
Turvey said about himself at the time. "Now I'm experiencing family.
I'm overwhelmed, excited."

Turvey also received the Order of British Columbia in 1984 and was
recognized in 1988 by the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control for his
plan to make needles readily available to Vancouver drug addicts to
reduce the spread of disease.

He was the son of fundamentalist Baptist parents in Chilliwack, B.C.
He ran away from home at age 13, when he became a heroin addict, but
had turned his life around by his early twenties.

He first became a government social worker and began working in the
1970s with street kids, who respected Turvey because he had
experienced addiction and life on the street.

He later started DEYAS and began handing out free condoms to street
prostitutes, whom he respected as part of the community and later
referred to as sex trade workers.

One night, one of the prostitutes suggested to Turvey that he should
be handing out free hypodermic needles so junkies would stop sharing
needles, which was causing the spread of hepatitis and HIV.

That led to him pioneering Vancouver's first free needle exchange,
which he is credited with doing without government assistance. The
exchange now gives out more than three million needles a year.

"He was a pioneer in the realm of harm reduction," recalled Bob
Sarti, a long-time resident of the Downtown Eastside and board member
of Vancouver's Carnegie Centre.

"We have to recognize that he was the first person out there on
Hastings Street, handing out needles and condoms," he said. "Creating
the needle exchange was a mind-blowing thing for the city. It was the
first thing that set everything else in motion."