ACTIVIST JOHN TURVEY DEAD AT 61

VANCOUVER - 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 Wednesday morning in Comox. He had moved there with his
wife Deb Turvey 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,"
Deb Turvey, a former Downtown Eastside social worker, recalled
Thursday. "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."

She 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, John Turvey told The
Vancouver Sun that his greatest achievement in life was discovering
the wonders of family with his wife Deb 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."

His wife said a private memorial will be held in Comox for family and
friends and a public memorial is being planned for Vancouver,
although no dates have been set.

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

He was the son of fundamentalist Baptist parents in Chilliwack. He
ran away from home at age 13, when he became a heroin addict, but had
turned his life around by his early 20s.

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 longtime resident of the Downtown Eastside and board member
of the Carnegie Centre.

"We have to recognize that he was the first person out there on
Hastings Street, handling 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."