Help Maxime's Family Pay For His Funeral

Dear friends,

Tragedy hit us recently with the loss of our son, brother, nephew, uncle and friend Maxime. He was declared brain dead on October 14th but was ultimately taken off life support on October 18th, 2024 at the Montfort Hospital in Ottawa, Canada.

Maxime at his core was very friendly, he was a very accomplished athlete. He won countless medals in track and field, he played Football, soccer and a swimmer as well. He was outspoken and outgoing individual who unfortunately discovered the world of substance in mid 2015. He started with cigarettes, vaping and later "soft" drugs like Cannabis, and shrooms. This as a result created a rift between him and his family. As one would expect, his family was not very pleased with the behavior he was actively engaging in. He was put under the care of many members of the family, from his mom to his brother and sisters... He was receiving advice from his family, church members, the Cameroonian community. For a little stretch, he appeared to be back to normal and seemed to be receptive of all the efforts that his family made to get him out of his predicament.

However, in 2019 he was in grade 12 when he was supposed to be graduating but relapsed badly. And this would mark the beginning of a downward spiral. We don't know how, but he got introduced to "hard" drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, and heroin. At this point, he started slumbering into a deep depression. His mental health was severely affected and he would get aggressive when he ran out of money to get substances. Said aggressiveness would result in him being hospitalized on many occasions. On many of these incidents, he would find himself held at the Gatineau Hospital. As a family we support him as much as we could, mom had to stop working for 6 months to make sure he gets all the care he needed.

After these episodes, Maxime would appear healthy and stable, come back home, but a few days out of the hospital, he will be back to his old ways and the cycle would start over...

This went on to the point where the family pleaded to the court of Ottawa to admit him in a rehab facility even by force if necessary; as we feared this addiction of his would be his own demise. But this request was refuted by the judge who claimed that Maxime was old enough to make such decisions for himself. Unfortunately, Maxime continued to meddle with these substances until Saturday October 12th where our fears finally came to life when he ultimately used a dangerous mix of hard drugs. As a result, he was rushed to the ICU at the Monfort Hospital in Ottawa, in a very critical condition. In fact it was so bad that he was declared brain dead just a couple days later on the 14th of October. The family was contacted to pray and say their final goodbyes. He passed away officially at 12:45 AM on October 18th at the tender age of 22 years old, surrounded by his family.

This GoFundMe page was created by Maxime's Siblings to help our single mom with the cost of the burial of her beloved son. Maxime never had the chance to have a job for long, did not have any kind of health or life insurance and our mom faced a lot of financial difficulties, job disruption and far more. Our last worry for Maxime is to make sure that he would get a proper burial. Maxime used to volunteer for the church. He believed in God, and would help the community during his sober days.

To make sure Maxime receives a proper burial, we reached out to a decent funeral home in the Ottawa/Gatineau area.

Please help us by sending your generous contribution. Any donation would help with not only the costs of the funeral, but also to ensure that Maxime gets the rest he finally deserves.