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June 27, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 51
COMOX VALLEY RECORD Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Her dying wish – to marry sweetheart
GRADS GLAD
Renée Andor Record Staff
North Island College graduates class of 2012. ■ 43
OLYMPIC HOPEFUL
Canada is sending a men’s beach volleyball team to the 2012 Summer Olympics. Will Comox’s Martin Reader be on that team? Time will tell. More precisely, July 7 will tell. Canada clinched an Olympic spot in men’s and women’s beach volleyball Saturday by winning both finals at the Continental Cup Games qualifying tournament in Mazatlan, Mexico.
... Complete story on ■ 16
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INSIDE
Shawn Wood, 28, has one goal — to give his 24-year-old fiancée, who was given three to 12 months to live, a beautiful wedding. “I was there and the doctors came in and told her she only has about three months to maybe a year at the very most,” said an emotional Wood, adding he turned to his fiancée and asked what the one thing she wanted more than anything else in the world was. “And she said she wanted to be my bride — so it’s a very emotional thing for me. It’s really big, it means the world to us.” Wood and fiancée Emily Niinemets, both from the Comox Valley, have been together since they were teenagers — nine years — and Wood proposed about five years ago, but they just didn’t quite get around to organizing their wedding before. “We’ve been together for so long and you know it’s just one of those things that you kind of put off to whatever, life and whatever happens,” said Niinemets. “But, everybody asks me what do I want, and you know, other than quality and long life, I really just wanted this day for us, and I think we deserve it.” Niinemets noticed a lump on her neck last August, and in January she was diagnosed with Stage 4 aggressive large-cell lymphoma. Wood noted she’s gone through four different kinds of chemotherapy since then, and spent a considerable amount of time in Vancouver for treatment lately. Last week, doctors told her none of the treatments were working. So, when they gave her the option of staying in Vancouver for more treatment or coming home, Niinemets chose to come home to have a better quality of life. The couple wants to spend as much time officially married as they can so they set a wedding date of July 3, but the cost of spending time in Vancouver and other health-related expenses left them with no extra money for a wedding. Wood set up an indiegogo account online over the week-
YOUNG COURTENAY COUPLE Shawn Wood, 28, and fiancée Emily Niinemets, 24, are reaching out to the community to help make Niinemets’ dream wedding a reality on July 3. PHOTO BY RENÉE ANDOR end with a goal of $5,000 for the wedding and a honeymoon by the closing date of July 11. On Monday, the link was shared around Facebook, and the donations reached about $1,000. As of Tuesday morning, a whopping $5,940 had been donated. Wood’s best man, Dave Sabanis, leaped in to help plan the wedding and Sabanis’ father made a large donation that paid for the tuxedo, rings and limousine. Quality Foods offered to make them their wedding cake. And the Courtenay White Spot, where Niinemets worked as a server until she was diagnosed with cancer, offered to hold the wedding reception there and take care of the food. The restaurant is also doing a 50/50 draw for a gift basket to raise money for the couple’s wedding. When the Record caught up with the couple Monday, they were astounded by the outpouring of community support. “It’s absolutely phenomenal; everyone’s come together, people are doing decorations, flowers,
we’ve had like 10 people offer to do photography and that kind of stuff,” said Wood. “I have so many friends and family already, you know, and supporters, but it’s just gone crazy,” added Niinemets. “I mean it’s just left, right and centre. I’m getting so, just, overwhelmed with how
many people want to help us out, and it’s great. “As a woman or a girl, you know, you kind of want to plan everything and do it all yourself, but everybody just wants to help me so bad and, you know, I’ve just really got to let them, let people ... see FIANCÉE ■ 2
Refugee finds refuge with job in barber shop Scott Stanfield Record Staff
Yousif Al Halaaq has spent more than half of his life barbering, a trade he needed to put on hold for a few years after fleeing his home country of Iraq. This month, he resumed cutting hair after landing a job at Sixth Street Barbers in Courtenay. “He’s working out really well,”
said Bob Turpin, who hired Yousif. “He’s very happy, and we’re happy that we’re able to give him work in his trade.” Unlike other trades, barbers from other countries do not need to be licensed to work in Canada. “The beauty industry has kind of deregulated itself,” Turpin said. Yousif is a Palestinian Iraqi who, along with his wife Abitsim ... see ONCE ■ 2
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