[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Cantwell.jpg” caption=”Krista Cantwell”]A memorial service will be held Monday, April 4 for a third-year nursing student known for her commitment to health care and helping people.

Krista Cantwell died Tuesday after in a Hamilton traffic collision. She was a Mohawk College student taking a McMaster University Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) through the Mohawk/McMaster/Conestoga Collaborative BScN Degree Program.

The service, organized by her fellow students, will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. in Room B102 of the Institute for Applied Health Sciences on the McMaster campus, and everyone is welcome.

Mary Brown, chair of Mohawk College's BScN Program, said Krista was a very special person who will be deeply missed.

“Krista embodied all that is special about nursing and nurses in her caring manner, her competence in the delivery of care to her clients and her professionalism,” she said.

Cantwell was an excellent academic student who was active as a student tutor both in the nursing school's Learning Resource Centre and for nursing students with English as a second language. She was chosen as a tutor, Brown said, because of her sensitivity for other cultures and backgrounds and her warmth and ability to work with others.

She had raised money for medical supplies and drugs for a medical clinic for the poor in Kenya where she had volunteered for the past two summers.

“Students enjoyed working with her, and couldn't help but be successful under her influence. Nothing was every too hard or difficult to take on for Krista.”

In her memory, Mohawk College lowered its flags on Wednesday and they will remain at half-mast until the funeral. McMaster University will do the same on Friday, and on the day of the funeral, Saturday, April 2 at 10 a.m. at St. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church on Brucedale Avenue East.

Visitation is Friday, April 1 between 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Cresmount Funeral Home on Fennell Ave. E.