North County Teen Dies From Flu; Family Hopes To Live His Dream

SAN DIEGO, CA -- San Diego County teenager Hunter Conner is one of the thousands of people who has been killed by the flu this season, but instead of just mourning his death, his family wants to live his dream of helping those less fortunate.

Conner died Jan. 17 at the age of 18 after contracting the flu. Despite living a short life, loved ones said Conner had big dreams for the world.

"Hunter’s heart was for those that had the least and were hurting the most," a GoFundMe page created for his family said. "Hunter wanted to become a Nurse Practitioner so that he could work with Doctors Without Borders to help those around the world that were sick and needed help. While working toward these long term goals he initiated a short term plan to become certified as an Emergency Medical Technician so that he could start working with programs like Samaritan Aviation where they use float planes to fly critically ill villagers out of the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea.

"When Hunter learned about an organization that helped orphan children living in the trash dumps in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, he started looking into ways he could go and volunteer. These are only a few examples that demonstrate where his heart was, what was important to him and what he wanted to do with his life."

Now, to help Conner reach his dream for the world, the family is fundraising through GoFundMe so that they can help others.

"The goal would be to raise enough funds to potentially send Troy, Rose and John to Haiti on a medical relief mission in November of this year," the fundraising page read. "They were honored even by the thought that people would be willing to donate to support this project. Troy, Rose and John also expressed that they would love if others could join them on this trip to help do Hunter’s work."

--Photo via GoFundMe

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