Leader of the pack lost
No Pants Army organizer Amy O'Connor remembered as quiet but passionate
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Published Friday, October 3, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When her friend Amanda Dei died of cancer last year, Amy O'Connor put the loss she felt to use by helping others.
Amy O'Connor developed an aggressive brain tumor and died Sept. 24 in Edmonton. She was the primary organizer for the group No Pants Army, named after Amanda Dei, who also died from cancer. - photo courtesy of Facebook |
As the primary organizer and fundraiser for the group No Pants Army, which contributed to the Canadian Cancer Society, she used the effort to deal with her sadness.
"(Dei) had a large group of friends and everyone wanted to do something. I mean, there really isn't that much you can do, but everyone wanted to help her with her effort to fight," O'Connor said in February 2013.
O'Connor's family and friends are now reeling with a tragedy of their own after she succumbed to cancer herself.
Friend Jay Boast said O'Connor had recently sought to find out why she was suffering from short-term memory loss. It was discovered she had a very aggressive brain tumor and was in Edmonton last week for a biopsy.
Described as a fiercely loyal friend, the 34-year-old died Sept. 24, hours after the procedure.
O'Connor was born in Oshawa, Ont., and moved to Yellowknife with her family in 1985. She was the daughter of Order of Canada recipient Patricia O'Connor, founder of the air ambulance service Medflight. Patricia and her husband, Jim, moved back to Ontario three years ago.
Amy had worked for the federal government and then with the territorial government following devolution.
Boast described her as laid back and quiet, but was "one of those people that was quiet until you pushed a button and found something she was passionate about."
She was the kind of friend who would always have a person's back, said Boast, who knew her for about five years after meeting through mutual friends.
"She was a happy person, always smiling," her mother said, adding she loved her animals and her friends and was active in the community.
She enjoyed being by the water outdoors and in a canoe, Boast said.
He said he'll always remember spending time with her at her parents' cottage near the city.
Last summer, she travelled south to Burning Man, an annual art and community event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada.
Patricia said Amy took an extended vacation to check an item off her bucket list.
"It was something she always wanted to do," her mother said yesterday.
She drove to Nevada from Yellowknife, then back to Ontario to visit her family before driving back to Yellowknife.
Boast said her death has hit him hard, adding there have been several others connected to the No Pants Army who have recently died.
"It's a lot of young people who are no longer with us, who were all amazing in their own way, who made contributions in their own way to the community," he said. "There's certainly a gap, a loss, a void."
Amy had a giving nature not only in life.
She told her mother just before her death that she wanted her organs donated.
Patricia said Amy's lungs, heart, eyes, skin and other organs were donated, and a rare double lung transplant took place in Edmonton.
"You kind of want something positive from something negative," Patricia said. "I think she would be happy that she did that."
Patricia said a memorial service has not yet been organized. Boast said friends are considering an event to mark her life in Yellowknife.
