Ian MacKay was determined to help, and he would not take no for an answer.
The 19-year-old had saved up by working three jobs seven days a week for months, and at the beginning of March, was ready to go to Port au Prince to help its residents recover from the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
"I was determined to go to Haiti whether I ended up sleeping behind some block in a tent," he said. "I knew I'd find some way of helping people, whether it be helping people carry water from the wells to their camp or driving a car around."
So when the aide organizations he'd approached turned down his offer, he simply went to a flight website, got an $800 ticket and went on his own with only a few essentials in hand.
"I went over there with 120 Cliff bars knowing that if I couldn't find any food I could ration enough Cliff bars to survive off of for three weeks - I was going to go there either way."
MacKay said the strongest factor in his decision to go to Haiti was when the world attention turned away from the cataclysmic situation and towards its own Olympic goals.
"I just heard all the stuff about 'Is Canada going to win this many medals?' and 'Who's going to win this medal count?' Meanwhile there's thousands of people dying and everybody forgot about it, I found in my opinion."
It turned out to be three weeks that may very well shape the rest of his life.
Thankfully just before departing, his uncle Dr. John Potts, a long time missionary who was volunteering at L'Hôpital de Fermathe on the outskirts of Port au Prince, helped MacKay secure a connection with an organization.
MacKay's mother, Sylvia MacKay, admits she was relieved to hear the news.
"[I was] a little trepidatious to start with because he didn't have a destination. But once my brother contacted him and he did have a destination" she said, trailing off.
"It's a little bit nerve-wracking, but on the other hand I'm very proud of him for going ahead and doing what he wants to do."
Once on the ground and in contact with the aide agency, MacKay was told he'd be moving boxes of medical equipment around a warehouse for three weeks.
But within two days he was scrubbing in with some of the best orthopedic surgeons in North America.
"I was doing just about everything," he said. "I helped deliver an emergency baby. I assisted with some amputations and helped out an orthopedic surgeons in the operating room."
Even at such a tender age, it's not MacKay's first time travelling to a Third World country for a charitable endeavour. In 2009, he spent over two months in Africa with the SAM (Sustainability through Agriculture and Micro-Enterprises) Project, working on gardens and schools trying to establish a sustainable school feeding programs.
Although last year's trip to Africa prepared MacKay for a Third World atmosphere, Port au Prince is actually classified Fourth World - a Third World in distress.
"It was a pretty unreal experience and eye-opening and life-changing," he said.
"They're having more of the second wave of infection and gangrene coming through, so there still is a lot of dying going on there and a lot of amputations and infections and premature babies, mothers and children dying on the operating table with me there.
"It was dealing with patients in the hospital that were in a building with seven others and were the only person that came out alive and haven't heard from their sons or their daughters or their mom and dads since the quake, they've just sat at the hospital."
Being surrounded by such turmoil takes its toll, said MacKay, but volunteers got professional support from individuals who had attended the Katrina hurricane in New Orleans, the tsunami in Sri Lanka and the shooting at Virginia Tech.
"They're very prepared to look after us," said MacKay.
In the end, he said, the experience strengthened his resolve to go into the field of medicine.
"Definitely thinking about the medical field now. It really exposed me to what is there. As many of the doctors told me, because I was in the operating room with them, that you'd never see what you normally would in the Western areas."
MacKay comes by his charitable streak honestly - he inherited it. His mother, a nurse, had volunteered in Africa at the age of 21 and just six years ago worked at a Honduran orphanage. His grandfather, a doctor, also went off on his own to volunteer in Africa when his children were little. And MacKay's two uncles are both doctors and missionaries.
"It's just been part of our family for years," said Sylvia.
And her son's ventures are only just beginning, and he plans to return to Haiti this summer, which, he said, will need help for years to come.
"The relief to rescue bodies hasn't even started," he said. "There's a mine near where I was staying that buried 1,500 people alive in the quake."
MacKay plans to go to Africa first in June after - hopefully - raising $10,000 through slideshow presentations, golf tournaments at the Squamish Valley Golf and Country Club - just one of his places of work - and with bagpipe performances, among other endeavours.
"Keep an eye out for upcoming fundraisers."
