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Nina Sophia Dixon, a beloved student in the Master of Teaching program at OISE, was born on February 10, 2001, at Toronto East General Hospital, and died peacefully on January 30, 2026, at her home in Toronto, surrounded by her immediate family. In her 24 years, Nina lived with extraordinary intensity, courage, and heart, leaving a legacy far greater than her years.

Nina was a star from the very beginning. From kindergarten onward, she distinguished herself as a gifted and determined student, excelling in spelling bees, poetry contests, and art competitions. Her academic achievements were matched by her leadership and character: she earned Honour Roll and Principal’s Awards, was named Valedictorian of Milne Valley Middle School in Grade 8, and later received Female Athlete of the Year in both Grades 11 and 12 at Don Mills Collegiate Institute.

Athletics were a defining part of Nina’s life. She played rep soccer with the Innisfil Soccer Club and the Leaside Tigers, and proudly represented her schools in soccer, basketball, and volleyball. To call Nina an exceptional all-rounder would be an understatement—she approached everything she did with discipline, grit, and joy.

Nina’s work life reflected her drive and compassion. She began her first job at Sky Zone, where she quickly rose through the ranks. Her adventurous spirit led her to become a tree planter with Brinkman Reforestation, where her determination and resilience earned her the posthumous Million Tree Shovel award, recognizing the planting of 66,000 trees in the Dryden, Ontario region. With no hopeful prognosis or treatment plan in place she made the choice to forge ahead with her life and moved to Victoria, B.C. soldiering through incredibly challenging symptoms. Here she created a new circle of friends while working at Heron Rock Bistro and got to spend time with Phoebe. Her health forced her to return home in 2021. Her pure heart and ever-present desire to help others made her a natural fit as a counsellor at CNIB Lake Joe, where she brought warmth, encouragement, and empathy to those around her.

Since childhood Nina possessed an extraordinary artistic talent that was further developed once she was accepted into the prestigious Cyber Arts program at Don Mills Collegiate Institute. At DMCI her creativity flourished and her talent continued to deepen. Art was never simply a hobby for Nina — it was a means to express herself and the world around her.

Even after losing the use of her hands and having severe vision impairment, her drive to create never left her. In those final months, when she could no longer physically make the things she envisioned, she became the director of her own creations — meticulously instructing step by step, describing colours, textures, placement, and tiny details so that homemade gifts and treasured keepsakes for family members could still come to life. Creating was integral to who she was. Even when her body failed her, her imagination, her eye for beauty, and her determination to give something meaningful to those she loved remained fiercely intact.

Even well into her prognosis, Nina refused to let life narrow. Instead, she chose expansion. She took a year to study abroad in 2024, beginning in Coventry, UK, where she embraced every opportunity for adventure—visiting her sister Sophie in London, dancing in nightclubs in Manchester, exploring castles in Edinburgh, attending a concert in Prague, and spending treasured time with cousins in Brighton. She joined a canoe-kayak polo team and took on Europe’s most challenging ski terrain at Tignes, skiing valiantly despite limited mobility and later dog-sledding with characteristic determination.

Her second term in Oslo, Norway, was marked by extensive travel and her love of cold plunging wherever possible. She journeyed to Tromsø and crossed the Arctic Circle to witness the Northern Lights. Further solo travels found Nina walking cities relentlessly—30,000 steps a day through Vienna, Zagreb, Croatia, and Montenegro—driven by curiosity, wonder, and an unquenchable appetite for life.

Nina’s travels were vast and meaningful, spanning New Zealand, Europe, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Barbados. Wherever she went, she connected deeply, leaving people better for having known her.

Nina graduated with Honours from the Health Sciences program at Western University in the fall of 2024. At the same time, she enrolled in the Master of Teaching program at the University of Toronto, where she successfully completed her first term. Had Nina’s health not deteriorated, we are very confident she would have earned her degree and gone on to become an effective and highly impactful teacher. Her love of kids and the powerful impact she had on their lives was evident in the close bonds she forged with the kids she taught in Grade 3 at McKee Public School, as part of her first-term practicum at U of T.

Nina was predeceased by her beloved mother, Anne Lise Dixon (née Sorensen), who died in 2009. She is survived by her father James, her sister Tia, her step-mother Megan, step-sisters Phoebe and Sophie, her paternal grandparents Vern & Shirley and a wide, loving circle of aunts, uncles, and cousins across Denmark, Barrie, Toronto, and the United Kingdom.

Nina will be remembered for her fierce determination, adventurous spirit, brilliant mind, and, above all, her kindness. She lived with purpose, helped others instinctively, and showed all of us how to meet life—no matter how difficult—with courage, generosity, and grace. Her light continues in the forests she planted, the people she uplifted, and the countless memories she leaves behind.

Even at the very end of her life, Nina’s instinct was to give. In a final act of profound generosity, she donated her lungs and eyes, offering others the gift of life and sight. She also chose to donate to brain tumour research, determined that her journey might help shape a future with more hope, knowledge, and healing. True to who she had always been, Nina wanted her life—right to its final moments—to continue giving to others. Her legacy is one of selflessness, courage, and love, living on in ways both seen and unseen.

A Celebration of Life will be held at Kane-Jerrett Funeral Homes - Thornhill (8088 Yonge St) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at 1:00pm. A reception will follow.

In lieu of flowers the family asks you to consider a donation in Nina's memory to a clinical studies for Zelenirstat, a new drug under development by Pacylex and the University of Alberta to treat blood cancers and solid tumors or to Make a Smile, an organization supporting disadvantaged children, which Nina volunteered at while she was at school in Coventry, England.

Originally published on .