LAM, Elizabeth “Paige” (née Thakkar)

November 2, 1993 — June 21, 2026

It is with profound grief we share with you that Paige passed away on Sunday, June 21, 2026 at the Hospice House in Kelowna, BC, after enduring yet another battle for her life.

Paige was born to Michael and Ann Thakkar in Vancouver, BC. She faced serious medical challenges from the very first day of her life, leading to her need for a liver transplant at just eight months old. While Paige faced significant medical challenges, she never allowed her medical reality to define who she was or what choices she made with her life.

This refusal to define herself by her medical condition was part of what made her such an extraordinary person. In her 32 years, regardless of facing death on nine separate occasions, each so serious her physicians did not believe she would survive, but survive, she did! Which is probably why it was almost impossible for many of us to believe she would not also survive this latest battle.

However, if Paige was reading this and we wrote anymore about her health she would be so disappointed with us because she would be the first to tell you just how rich and remarkable her life was! But to not know this piece of Paige’s story would make it more difficult to understand why she was so impossible for people to forget and impossible for people not to admire. Her sister Mya wrote, “Every single person that knew (Paige) was better for it….she was kind, funny, joyous, stubborn, compassionate, multi-talented and fiercely loyal…and (she) never stopped being curious, never accepted easy answers…never grew intellectually complacent…even when doing so might have been easier for her…”

Life also taught Paige to be unflinchingly honest. Regardless of how hard facing the truth might be, Paige believed not facing the truth always made things far more difficult. Even in the final stage of her life she did not pretend she wasn’t dying, nor did she pretend to be at peace about dying, because Paige loved her life!!

And there was so much Paige was passionate about – Adam, Shep, her friends, her family, animals, plants, karate, medicine, learning, scuba-diving, travel, adventures of all kinds, and nursing. But as it is impossible to touch on each of these aspects of Paige’s life, we thought we would at least provide you with a few snapshots of some of what Paige relished most about her life.

In 1997, with her classic passionate enthusiasm, Paige welcomed her little sister Mya into the world. Mya was the first person to experience Paige’s fierce loyalty and unrelenting protective nature.

In 2000, Paige transferred to Calgary Christian School. Within the first few days at school Paige met Marit McKenzie. The two girls quickly became inseparable and one another’s best friend. Their friendship blossomed from their first year together in Gr.2 , through Gr. 12 graduation and beyond, as Marit became like family to Paige, and to us. So, when Marit died suddenly in 2014, we were all devastated. But for Paige, Marit’s death was a loss from which she never truly recovered.

But thankfully Paige had two other dear friends, who like Marit, had also become family, Breanne (Adrian) Friesen and McKinley Wiens. As all three of them loved Marit, her death was a tragedy they weathered together and only served to deepen their love and commitment to one another.

In 2019, Paige celebrated the culmination of a life-long dream when she graduated from the University of British Columbia Okanagan with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Paige had always longed to care for others the way she had been cared for in hospitals throughout her life.

But 2019 had more joy in store for Paige, as this was the year she met Adam Lam, a man who would become her best friend, and on June 13, 2023, her husband. For those of us who loved Paige we had never seen her more at ease, nor more herself then she was with Adam. According to Paige, (and all of us) Adam Lam was hands down, the best thing that ever happened to her!

A year before Paige and Adam married they welcomed a sweet pup named Shep into their lives. Shep’s gentle, not-a-mean-bone-in-his-body nature perfectly reflected that of his ‘humans’.  How much additional joy Shep brought into Paige and Adam’s life!

Her love of travel and adventure took Paige to Hawaii, Britain, and Europe with friends and family. Then she and Adam began adventuring together, travelling repeatedly to Mexico to scuba dive and to explore Mexican culture and cuisine. But their biggest adventure was the bucket-list trip they took for their honeymoon to the Galápagos Islands in 2024! It was everything they hoped it would be and made them eagerly anticipate their next adventure together, to Japan.

Paige lived her life wholeheartedly, exclaiming to us while she was in hospice, “I’ve succeeded at life!”

And her remarkable life was directly tied to the exceptional care she received. So it is with profound gratitude we acknowledge the incredible medical teams who supported, cared, and advocated for Paige throughout her life:

• Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario’s liver transplant team (especially Dr. D. Grant, the surgeon who performed what we would later learn to be a miraculous transplant that saved Paige’s life)
• Alberta Children’s Hospital’s gastroenterology team
• Foothills Medical Centre’s liver transplant team (especially Dr. A. Aspinall)
• Kelowna General Hospital’s oncology, CTU, and hepatology teams
• And our final thanks goes to Paige’s outstanding family physician, Dr. T. Bielby, who went above and beyond to advocate and support Paige throughout the last seven years of her life, right up until her very last days with us.

Paige is survived by her husband Adam, sister Mya, father Michael (Clara), and her mother Ann. Paige was very fortunate to be surrounded and loved by a large extended family: the Jamiesons on her mom’s side, the Thakkars, and the Lams. And Paige had a faithful community of friends who were also family to her: Erica Drake (along with Barb and Phil); Susan and Bruce McKenzie (Marit’s parents); Breanne Friesen; McKinley Wiens; Daniel Willson (along with Becca, Tim, Chris, and Yolanda); Becca Albo; Tony, Bella; and Lorenzo Zumbo; Hal Shin and Breagh Kobayashi; and Heather Bensler (who Paige called her ‘second’ mom).

Paige requested we have two gatherings to celebrate her life. The first is to be a memorial service to reflect the Christian faith she grew up in and the second will be a celebration of ‘all things Paige’ at a park both she and Adam loved.

Both gatherings will be held in the Kelowna area on Saturday, August 15, 2026. 

The first of these gatherings will be held at First Baptist Church, 1309 Bernard Ave., Kelowna, BC at 10:00 am. Followed by the second at the Kaloya Regional Park, Lake Country, BC from 2:30 – 6:00 pm, light refreshments will be served. All are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, Paige asked people to consider donating to two organizations that were very important to her: Paws It Forward or to one of the many conservation organizations supported through the work of Fahlo.

If you wish to send a condolence, post photos, or share a memory, please scroll down the page to the area called “Condolences”.

Service Details

The service for LAM, Elizabeth “Paige” (née Thakkar) is scheduled for Saturday, August 15, 2026. Below you will find the map for the service location and the contact information should you have any questions.

Address & Contact for Service Location:

First Baptist Church (10:00 AM) & Kaloya Regional Park (2:30-6:00 PM)

1309 Bernard Ave, Kelowna, BC V1Y 6R5 16061 Trask Rd, Lake Country, BC V4V 2H9

Phone:

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Special Requests:

None.

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