Shirley Young continues son’s legacy by helping expand AIDS care

At 91, Shirley Young remains an active volunteer at the Dr. Peter Centre, the Vancouver-based health-care facility that specializes in care for people with HIV/AIDS established in memory of her late son.

For almost three decades, Young has been serving meals and interacting with clients at the centre every week, prompting many at the facility to regard her as a “matriarch.”

“We would look forward to [her] coming every Wednesday … she would love us unconditionally,” said Hazeel Cardinal, a former patient and resident at the centre established in 1997 in memory of Dr. Peter Jepson-Young. 

Jepson-Young died of AIDS in 1992, having gone public with his diagnosis at a time of heightened stigma about the disease.

Young, recently diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer — the most advanced stage —  is now facing her own serious health challenges, but the 91-year-old says she is looking to continue her son’s legacy with a new fund that aims to expand the centre’s health programs across the country. 

On Sunday, the Peter Young Foundation organized a party at the centre to celebrate Young’s life and work and to announce the new “affirmation” fund based on notes written by Jepson-Young during the last few months of his life.

In a previous interview with CBC News, Young recited her son’s words of affirmation.

WATCH | Shirley Young recites her late son’s affirmation:

Dr. Peter’s mother recites affirmation written by her late son

Shirley Young shares a statement her son wrote while on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

“The last line of it was, ‘The energy that is me will not be lost,'” Dr. Peter Centre CEO Scott Elliott said at the party Sunday to launch the fund and celebrate Shirley Young’s life and work.

“And so it’s the idea of, how do we keep hope? How do we bring humanity to things?”

Young is the first donor to the fund, contributing $100,000. She hopes others will match her donation to double the fund’s impact.

Elliott says the fund will help the centre work with organizations across Canada to find ways of helping people living with HIV/AIDS and dealing with substance use, homelessness and mental illness — people marginalized in the community who Elliott says are not always being successfully treated in current health-care systems.

The party and donation were two of the ailing Young’s wishes, Elliott said. 

“We had lunch, and she goes to me, ‘Scott, I want two things: I want to party, and I’m going to give you $100,000 … to keep my legacy going.'”

Young received a warm welcome at Sunday’s party.

“There are so many important people along my journey. God bless you for being in this journey,” she said at the event. She was too tired to talk to CBC News in person on Sunday.

After Jepson-Young went public with his AIDS diagnosis in 1990, he became the face of the epidemic for many in B.C., according to close friend David Paperny, one of the founding members of the Dr. Peter Centre.

Jepson-Young’s story was also broadcast as the Dr. Peter Diaries on CBC Television. A documentary compilation, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1994.

“It is a very overwhelming experience to see the impact that storytelling can have on a community,” said Paperny, who produced the award-winning series.

Paperny says he has seen the centre bring tremendous changes to people’s lives and is excited about its future.

“Shirley turned sadness and grief into something powerful and just into compassion and into love,” he said.