Daniel was born and raised in a small town in northern Ontario where the main industry was mining. The mines used large quantities of sulphur during the extraction of nickel, ore and copper. That made vegetation a challenge in the city. Consequently, there were few trees and most of the land was black. As the mines started to shut down because of hard economic times, Sudbury sprouted with greenery and he now considers it to be one of the nicest cities in Ontario.

He was raised in a French Catholic family. His mother was one of 20 children and my father one of 15. In fact, he has so many cousins that it’s impossible to know all of them!

In his words:

My parents raised me to keep things to myself, to not get involved in other people’s business, to not to go out of my way to help others out, do what you can but within reason.

But in 2014, I donated a kidney to someone I hardly knew. In that same year, I let someone I knew very little move in with me because he was down on his luck. It has flourished into one of the best friendships I’ve had. For some unknown reason, I came to believe that everyone should give something of themselves without asking for anything in return. Karma will see that it comes back to me.

I don’t know how I came to be this way seeing as I was a victim of constant bullying during my childhood because of my sexuality. Things got pretty bad for me when I was a teen but here I am and I plan on giving more of myself to others.