Cyrus and Eva: A Partnership that Launched a Movement #4Eva
The photos that Cyrus McEachern and Eva Markvoort created together sparked BC Transplant’s “Live Life. Pass It On.” Campaign, and have inspired and captivated thousands of people around the province since their creation. Today on the blog, we share the story of their friendship and the creation of those life-changing photos.
Cyrus and Eva met through co-director Phil Lyall during the filming of 65_RedRoses when the three of them all went to the beach just a few months before Eva’s pager would go off.
“I didn’t know how sick she was, but I had heard about her and the film,” Cyrus remembers, “And then going back up the stairs [from the beach] to the car, she needed like half an hour to catch her breath. I thought, Wow, this poor girl really needs new lungs.”
After Eva received her transplant, she began attending UBC, where Cyrus was in his first year of medical school. “We met for lunches and just kind of connected. She was an awesome person. We’d get together and talk about life.”
“One of my professors organizes a yearly photography contest based around the heart—she’s a cardiology professor. I think it’s called “Heartfelt Images.” And some of my friends knew I was really into photography, and were really pressuring me to win it and put a lot of effort in. I had a few ideas, but I didn’t really have a person to take a photo of.” When he mentioned it, Eva eagerly agreed to be his model.
Watch this exclusive teaser from the DVD Extras of Cyrus talking about creating the first images:
“I was thinking about how successful those first photos Eva and I did together were, and I thought, why not round up more transplant recipients, do the same body painting that Eva had done on herself, and BC Transplant could use it in an ad campaign? So I talked to Eva about it, and she loved it, she loved the idea.
“I organized it with my school, and got a co-sponsor, and we went to BC Transplant with the idea. They loved it, so they helped us recruit some young transplant recipients. Eva’s health was in decline so we were kind of in a time crunch to do as many as we could.
“It took us a few months to get the photos done, gave them to BC Transplant, and it took them the better part of a year to turn it into an ad campaign.
“I’m really proud of [the images] and I’ve always wanted them to go to really good use. I had a certain amount of anxiety about having these images that I thought were really powerful and meant a lot, and not having a way of communicating them or getting them out to the public. I’m just so grateful that this all overlaps with Phil and Nimisha, and their movie about Evam and her whole story. And that it finally has an avenue to get out to the public, and make a difference in the transplant community.”
Click here to learn more about the Live Life. Pass It On Campaign. To see the whole interview with Cyrus, purchase the 65_RedRoses DVD (sorry, Canadian shoppers only!)
