A Coquitlam woman has faced many challenges in her life but finding a way to reduce the suffering of people with inflammatory bowel disease is probably one of her biggest.
Now, with a $5,000 scholarship from Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, Kwestan Safari will be able to finish her education while doing research on the condition.
“This is something I’m extremely passionate about,” Safari, a Port Moody secondary school graduate, told The Tri-City News this week.
She is completing her studies in molecular biology and biochemistry at SFU this fall and hopes to attend UBC this winter to work on a master's degree in experimental medicine. The scholarship, one of several handed out this year through the AbbVie IBD Scholarship Program, will enable Safari to study and do research in intestinal fibrosis.
“You can die from it and currently we don’t have any treatment or understand why it develops,” Safari said.
Research isn’t the only way Safari is working to help some of the 270,000 Canadians who live with IBD; she also helped start a support group at SFU.
“It’s something difficult to talk about,” she said. “We do information sessions, where we have someone from the community who is knowledgeable about IBD come and give talks.”
Her passion for researching and supporting people with the disease comes from the fact that Safari suffers from IBD and two of her brothers have Crohn’s disease.
“Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a doctor, I’ve been really passionate about the research aspect of the medicine.”
Safari was four years old when she came to Canada and is appreciative of being able to help others. Her journey to Canada began in December 2000, when at the age of four, she and her mom and dad, Kurdish refugees living in Camp Altash in northern Iraq, along with her four brothers, immigrated.
Up until then, the family lived in the camp located near Ramadi in Iraq. But life in the camp was difficult, especially without regular medical care.
The family has done well since moving to Canada, Safari said, but dealing with IBD is a constant problem.
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease. When someone develops one of these autoimmune diseases, their body begins to attack healthy tissue in their bowels, resulting in inflammation of all or part of the gastrointestinal tract. While each case is unique, severe abdominal pain, nausea, fatigue, internal bleeding and the unpredictable and urgent need to use the washroom are the most common symptoms, according to a press release from Crohn’s and Colitis Canada.
Safari said she hopes her studies and research will lead to some relief for the thousands of IBD sufferers.
“For me, I’m driven by this. I’m really passionate…It’s really great to get the IBD scholarship.”
