From globeandmail.com

Jane Philpott describes it as the worst day of her life – a day so tragic that, although 25 years have now passed, she vividly recalls every single moment.

On that day, her first-born child, Emily, died suddenly of meningococcemia, a disease that is rarely seen in North America.

The family was living in Niger, in western Africa, where Dr. Philpott was practising medicine and helping train local health workers. Emily was not yet three years old, and the hospital where she could have received live-saving injectable penicillin was two hours away.

“The aggressive infection was going to win the race,” Dr. Philpott wrote in a heartbreaking blog post several years ago. “Less than an hour into our journey, precious Emily had a seizure and then she stopped breathing. It was the most horrible moment of my life.”

Earlier this month, on March 11 – the 25th anniversary of Emily’s death – Dr. Philpott reposted her story. It was her way of marking the day.

Usually, she and her husband, Pep, do something special with their four other children, but Dr. Philpott is now the federal Minister of Health and, not surprisingly, was working.

Instead, she and Pep, a CBC Radio journalist, had to settle with exchanging notes.

The daughter of a Presbyterian minister and an elementary schoolteacher, Dr. Philpott, 55, was imbued with a strong sense of public service. Running for office last October and becoming the MP for Markham-Stouffville is her way of practising what she was taught by her parents, as were the nine years she worked in Africa.

Sadly, there is a paradox: Being taught to give back may have taken away their daughter. Had her young family been in Canada, Emily might have lived.

Read more here.