LONDON, ONT. -- A Canadian online platform, Willful, is offering free wills to front-line health care workers amidst the pandemic.
Over 4,000 front-line healthcare workers have received a free will, with the second highest percentage seen in London-area hospitals.
Sarah Craig-Campbell, 36, is an emergency room nurse at St.Thomas Elgin General Hospital (STEGH) who created her will early last year when the first signs of the pandemic hit the region.
Craig-Campbell works face-to-face with COVID-19 patients in the STEGH’s COVID-19 unit.
“As an emergency room nurse I have become acutely aware of the fragility of life, and that it can be taken away at any moment, the pandemic has increased that. It's not just the old, not that old people don’t matter but it's younger people now too.”
She says many COVID-19 patients are in their thirties like her, who have young children and families of their own to look after.
Picture drawn by Sarah Craig-Campbell’s two daughters: Piper and Marley (Supplied)
Craig-Campbell says she is privileged to have a sense of job security and to work the front-lines during a pandemic.
But the blunt reality of a COVID-19 hospital room, put her own life into perspective.
“I miss my family, I have family living out of town and I don’t see them because I try to respect the rules…The reality of the risk is there, it is kind of scary to think of the fact that myself or any of my colleagues could get COVID-19 and it could turn into something very scary and serious…we need to plan for what could happen.”
Canadian online platform Willful, based in Toronto Ont., has been offering free wills to front-line health care works since the pandemic first began in early 2020.
“We heard from doctors and health care professionals that they were being urged to get their emergency planning in place. We have been offering free wills for over a year, and we have given out almost 4,000 free wills across the country and London is actually one of our top cities,” says co-founder Erin Bury.
Willful will be offering free wills to health care workers for the duration of the pandemic.
Craig-Campbell continues to say how grateful she is to be helping the most vulnerable during the pandemic, but adds that the will provides her and her family with a sense of security among the uncertainty of the pandemic.
“If something were to happen to me, to know my husband and family are financially secure makes me feel good.”
