Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This month, the Canadian Liver Foundation is recognizing Liver Health Month in Canada. The liver is the body's third largest organ and weighs in at approximately three pounds. Your liver can regenerate to 90 percent of its original size and serves as the body's filter, cleaning our blood and regulating hormone levels and cholesterol as well as vitamin and mineral uptake. The liver is our processor and, daily, performs over 500 functions essential to life.

When people think of liver disease or failure, there is often stigma attached. An automatic assumption is that it is caused by alcohol when, in fact, there are over 100 diseases that affect the liver, and only one is alcohol-related. Liver cancer is one of the fastest-growing and deadliest types of cancer in Canada today. As well, up to 20 percent of obese individuals in Canada have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which may require a transplant sometime down the road. Liver disease can affect people from all walks of life, regardless of their age, gender, ethnic background, or socio-economic status. While one in four Canadians may be affected by liver disease, many are unaware. Early diagnosis remains the key to a successful treatment or cure.

Liver Health Month is especially important to me as I lost my maternal uncle, William Grant, to primary liver cancer, likely due to his time as a military airline mechanic working with solvents and chemicals; and I, myself, suffer from an immune disease called sarcoidosis that affects my liver. I was diagnosed 10 years ago after having surgery in Edmonton to remove benign tumours from the right lobe of my liver. This began my own health journey where I soon learned I would have to navigate not only my own diagnosis and subsequent health-related issues, but become an expert in medical travel, specialist appointments, blood work, self-advocacy, and diagnostic imaging.

My story is not a unique one. Many people across the North face the same struggle, trying to balance living life with a chronic disease or condition. This balance is hard to achieve at the best of times and is only been thrown on end by COVID-19. Given the challenges of receiving healthcare in the North, it only seems smart that we be proactive and work on preventing people from getting sick in the first place. Education will be the key to reducing the mortality related to liver diseases, and I urge my colleagues to help by sharing posts from the Canadian Liver Foundation this month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.