By Kent Gilchrist, The Province -- Talk about the indomitable spirit, the generous heart and the work ethic to be able to make a difference to everyone with whom she comes in contact. That's Jamie Keast.

She should be wearing a Superwoman cape or some other identification that informs strangers of her great capacity for goodness.

A tiny Q tattooed on her left ankle and another that says "no regrets" on her wrist are permanent reminders of her great loss. Her twin brother Quinn was removed from her and her parents' lives and all those who knew him well on their high school grad night three years ago when he stepped out of a van on the traffic side and was struck down.

Quinn's death isn't the only tragedy this 21-year-old, who might have been Florence Nightingale in a previous life, has endured. She had previously had to deal with the automobile death of a seven-year-old cousin. But if you're thinking this is going to be a sad story, you're wrong. It is one full of joy of giving and renewal and making a difference.

Jamie and her boyfriend Matt Sacks, you see, recently returned from Cape Town, South Africa, where they unloaded, sorted and delivered some of Rick Gill's Hoop

4 Hope container of basketballs, soccer balls, shoes and uniforms he and his little cadre of volunteers had busily filled here over the previous 18 months or so to send to kids in need over there. Prior to their arrival in Cape Town, the pair had volunteered in Ghana, where Matt had helped coach basketball while Jamie taught an HIV and Aids awareness course in various schools during the day and helped put children to bed at an orphanage during the night. They were there for more than four months.

She says if it wasn't for Matt -- who was a buddy of Quinn's -- pushing her, she might have missed out on a trip of a lifetime.

"I told my parents it was the third hardest thing I've ever done after Quinn and my cousin [Jeremy Lees]," said Jamie while volunteering again for Hoops 4 Hope at Kitsfest at Kitsilano Beach.

"It was very hard, but I loved being there with the kids. I want to go back tomorrow.

"There were times that I desperately wanted to get on the next plane for home. But most of the time it was a wonderful experience. It was so many things; sad, happy. ... It's the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. I learned so much about myself. If I hadn't had to come back for a wedding, I might have stayed there forever."

To keep Quinn's name alive, Jamie's parents Tom and Jan started the Quinn Keast Foundation where they present scholarships to high school grads.

Their foundation and Gill's Hoops 4 Hope have teamed up and have been mutually beneficial to each other.

With these charities there are no bloated expenses and paid staffs. It's all volunteer sweat. All that's raised gets in the hands that it's supposed to.

They are goodness personified. The homemade display with pictures of Jamie's trip and hand-written signs and information are dead giveaways.

There's nothing professional here. Just a bunch of kids donating their time and effort because they believe it's the right thing to do.

When she was unloading the container in Cape Town she found a pair of sneakers that had "No Regrets" and Quinn's No. 13 that he wore with pride for Handsworth when they won the B.C. High School AAA basketball title written on them.

They could have been his, but Jamie knew her mom wasn't ready to part with any of her son's stuff just yet. They were someone else's simply showing respect.

She also handed out her own old Handworth top to one of the kids.

It will be cherished.

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