Pictured: Stephen and Debbie Boyd (middle) with their children Greg, Jill and Kelsey at the Jordan Boyd Inherited Heart Disease Clinic naming unveiling.
Every week, people arrive at the Jordan Boyd Inherited Heart Disease Clinic carrying questions no family ever expects to ask. Why did their heart stop without warning? Could someone else in our family be at risk? Is there anything we can do to prevent it from happening again?
For many, a referral to the QEII Health Sciences Centre's specialized clinic follows one of the most difficult chapters of their lives. Others arrive before tragedy strikes, seeking answers after a relative is diagnosed with an inherited heart condition.
Inside the QEII’s Jordan Boyd Inherited Heart Disease Clinic, those questions are met with something powerful: expert care, advanced genetic testing and the opportunity to identify and intervene before another life is forever changed.
For Stephen and Debbie Boyd, that journey began more than a decade ago.
In 2013, their son Jordan was just 16 years old when he collapsed on the ice during training camp with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. There had been no warning signs, no symptoms and no indication that anything was wrong with his heart.
Only after his passing did physicians determine Jordan had Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a rare inherited heart condition.
The diagnosis came too late to save Jordan, but it changed the future for the rest of his family.
Genetic testing revealed Jordan's mother, Debbie, carried the same mutation. So did Jordan's older brother, Greg. That discovery marked the beginning of the Boyd’s journey with the QEII's then Inherited Heart Disease Clinic, originally founded by Dr. Martin Gardner, where they began receiving specialized care, monitoring and support.
What started as one family's search for answers soon grew into a lasting partnership with the QEII Foundation. Inspired by the care they received — and driven by a desire to spare other families from experiencing the same heartbreak — the Boyds turned their grief into action.
For more than a decade, the Boyd family has partnered with the QEII Foundation to advance inherited heart disease research and care at the QEII. Through celebrity hockey tournaments, golf events and the generosity of countless donors, they've helped raise more than $1.2 million (and counting!) to ultimately help prevent sudden death from cardiac arrest.
In recognition of that extraordinary impact, the QEII's Inherited Heart Disease Clinic was officially renamed the Jordan Boyd Inherited Heart Disease Clinic in 2024 — a lasting tribute to Jordan's memory and the family's unwavering commitment to helping others.
Today, the Boyd family is helping write the clinic's next chapter.
Stephen and Debbie Boyd, together with the Boyd brothers and their families, have committed a combined $200,000 matching gift through the QEII Foundation to help relocate and revitalize the Jordan Boyd Inherited Heart Disease Clinic and Pacemaker Device Lab. Their investment will match every community donation, dollar for dollar, helping bring the $775,000 project to the finish line.
The donor-funded transformation will create modern spaces that better support patients, families and healthcare teams. Today, patients are often seen in curtained areas with limited privacy, and there simply isn't enough room to meet the growing demand for inherited heart disease and cardiac device care.
The project will create more dedicated examination and consultation rooms, enhancing privacy and comfort for patients and loved ones. It’ll also bring specialized heart health teams together in more integrated spaces designed to support collaboration and future growth.
"One of the greatest comforts we've found over the years is knowing that Jordan continues to help protect other families," says Stephen Boyd. "Helping transform the clinic that bears his name felt like the next step in that journey."
Jordan's uncles say joining the project was a meaningful way to honour their nephew while investing in the future of cardiac care.
"Jordan will always be part of our family, and we're incredibly proud that his story continues making a difference for so many others," says David Boyd on behalf of the Boyd brothers and their families. "Helping create spaces that better support patients, families and healthcare teams is something we're honoured to be a part of and we hope others will join us."
Together, these soon-to-be-revitalized spaces will better support the exceptional care already being delivered every day.
"Jordan's diagnosis changed the course of our family's life in ways we never could have imagined," says Debbie Boyd. "Following our own diagnoses, Greg underwent life-changing heart surgery, and I received an implantable defibrillator that continues to protect me today. We both continue to receive lifelong monitoring and care, so we know firsthand how critical these spaces are and the impact this transformation will have.”
Recently, the Boyd family experienced a moment that brought Jordan's story full circle. Greg's two young children underwent genetic testing at the Jordan Boyd Inherited Heart Disease Clinic — the very clinic named in honour of the uncle they never had the chance to know.
Thankfully, neither child carries the ARVC gene.
"Watching the next generation of our family receive answers and reassurance in Jordan's clinic is something we'll never forget," says Stephen. "Jordan's story didn't end in 2013. Every family that finds answers here, every life that's saved and every breakthrough that happens because people choose to give back is part of the future he helped create."
That future is exactly what the Boyd family hopes their matching gift will inspire.
By supporting the QEII Foundation's project to transform the Jordan Boyd Inherited Heart Disease Clinic and Pacemaker Device Lab, donors will help create welcoming, patient-centred spaces where expertise, innovation and compassion come together — ensuring more families can access specialized cardiac care when they need it most. What a gift.
To learn more or donate, visit QE2Foundation.ca/Boyd-Match.
