Obituary of Florian Ghiban

FLORIAN GHIBAN1953 - 2020Florian was totally awesome and quite unique, but humble about his many accomplishments - just ask anyone! If you were lucky to have ever been in his presence, you will all agree that he had a glow about his body, a sparkle in his eyes and a smile on his face that never stopped, which made everyone around him instantly happy. Intelligent, kind, fun, loyal, loving, brave, fearless as he made sure he always knew what he was doing, generous with his time and expertise to make sure all of us were safe. He had many friends in the air and on the mountains, as well as the sea. Florian was a man of the world having experienced and enjoyed 51 countries. His friends were constantly amazed at how many people knew him when they were together in distant countries. He had a wide range of interests and skills - a Navy man with a wealth of knowledge and expertise in all things mechanical and electrical, a scuba diver, a mountain and road cyclist, a snowboarder, a back country skier, a ham radio operator, an entertaining raconteur, a "MacGyver" extraordinaire, a committed family man with a love for our dogs and a newly found fondness for the cat, but most of all, a most passionate paragliding addict who lived to fly. His wife Arlene (Dagys) and son David Ghiban will always remember him for all of this and so much more. Florian was born in Bucharest, Romania to Emilia, aged 91 and to Traean, who died on June 18th at age 97. He was the best little brother to his sister Gabriela "Gabi" (Cristi), loving uncle to Corina (Paul) and Mirabela, great uncle to Dani and cousin to Steluta (Aurelian) and Adrian, all in Romania. Also, Florian was deeply loved by Arlene's deceased parents George and Phyllis, her Aunt Betty (John) and cousins Charlene (Bruce), Kevin (Svetlana) and Kirk (Asia) and their children, Lindsay, Kelly, Spencer, Diamond, Nova and Hudson. Florian was diagnosed in June 2019 with extremely aggressive Stage 4 pleomorphic variation of Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), a rare non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Not only did he have extensive chemotherapy, but he also had a stem cell transplant which used his own stem cells (called an autotransplant) before Christmas, followed by radiation in March and another round of chemotherapy until last week. In his memory, donations to The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation at https://thepmcf.ca/Donate-Now, and from there selecting the In Memory Donation, would be appreciated. The following Fund Allocation option should be directed to Stem Cells in Cancer Research Fund in the drop down menu. This particular research program will learn why MCL patients generally do more poorly following autotransplant, compared to other types of lymphoma and additionally help on backtracking the origin of lymphoma, as well as leukemia.