It was the day after Halloween in 2018 that Zoah Johnston’s and her family’s lives changed forever.
The five-year-old Toronto girl had gone out trick-or-treating the night before, dressed as Elsa from “Frozen” — and her parents Jay and Sara had noticed she was tired when she came home, and her right eyelid was ever-so-slightly drooped.
In 2021, just days after the family held a late Halloween celebration in their Riverdale home in December, Zoah died from rhabdomyosarcoma, the rare and aggressive cancer first revealed by that drooping eyelid.
And on Feb. 4, on what would have been Zoah’s eighth birthday, her parents Jason Johnston and Sara Escott are launching Zoah’s Village, a blood donation drive at Canadian Blood Services — adding to an ongoing drive to raise money for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
“Even though Zoah passed away Dec. 17, it is still fresh for us, and in honour of her eighth birthday we want to give back, and that’s why we’re encouraging people to give,” said Sara in an interview in late January. “So for her birthday week, that’s what we want to give back — that’s why we’re encouraging people to give.”
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