“Students don’t need to wait for a title, a degree or permission to begin making a difference”

What Imeth Illamperuma saw during his daily commute to McMaster spurred one of the largest student-led naloxone access projects at a Canadian university.

In his second year of undergrad, Illamperuma moved into a student house in downtown Hamilton. The city’s opioid crisis was impossible to ignore during his walk to the MacNab Street Bus Terminal.

In 2023, Hamilton Paramedic Services responded to more than 950 suspected opioid overdoses. Illamperuma saw used needles on sidewalks near parks and playgrounds and watched paramedics, firefighters and police officers provide life-saving care on city streets.

“The crisis became part of my daily life. It was unavoidable.”

It also left the kinesiology student with a crisis of conscience. “What does it mean to witness suffering every day, walk past it and do nothing?”

Illamperuma was raised in a family of health care providers so looking away wasn’t an option. “A compassionate heart and mind are at the very core of clinical practice.”

What struck Illamperuma was both the scale of the crisis and its proximity. “This wasn’t happening in some distant part of the city, far removed and disconnected from campus life. It was unfolding just a bus ride from McMaster — and at times, only steps away from our doors. Our university is part of Hamilton. We have a responsibility to be part of the solution.”

So Illamperuma did what students are taught to do – be curious, ask questions and learn. He studied everything he could about naloxone, a fast-acting medication that temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid overdose and buys time until first responders arrive.

“Naloxone kits can save lives,” says Illamperuma. He started carrying one in his backpack and then turned his attention to McMaster. Why weren’t there naloxone kits on campus?

McMaster has more than 60 automated external defibrillators and a highly trained team of emergency first responders. Illamperuma believed naloxone was no different – a simple, life-saving intervention that can keep an emergency from turning into a tragedy.

Illamperuma anticipated both logistical challenges and social barriers to introducing naloxone kits.

“We don’t hesitate to help someone who’s having a heart attack. No one asks if they deserve the defibrillator. But an overdose is often met with fear and judgment. For many people, it’s still very uncomfortable to see an overdose. Some people may struggle to feel empathy for individuals with chronic addictions. Instead of helping, they ask ‘why are you doing this to yourself?’ But when we write people off as lost causes, we harden our hearts and minds.”

Illamperuma launched the student-led harm reduction coalition SHIELD (Support Harm Reduction Information Education Life-saving Devices) to tackle that stigma and raise awareness about naloxone kits. The group created a two-minute mini-lecture that’s so far reached more than 5,000 students, faculty and staff.

“Our goal wasn’t to turn everyone into a medical expert. We wanted to make naloxone less intimidating and give people enough knowledge to know how to use a kit and save a life.”

Around the same time, Illamperuma connected with medical student Bhavya Gandhi who’d been an advanced medical first responder at the University of Toronto Mississauga before coming to McMaster.

Together they founded the Emergency Naloxone Station Initiative — a campus-wide project to make naloxone as visible and accessible as other readily available emergency-response tools. Working closely with University Health and Safety, they had 32 kits added to strategic locations across McMaster. A map showing the location of the kits is available online.

“If you witness an overdose anywhere at or near McMaster, there’s now a life-saving kit no more than 200 metres away. Research shows that’s the optimal distance.”

The naloxone project changed how Illamperuma thought about research. He realized early on that the project rested on more than compassion and good intentions – it needed solid evidence, public health reasoning and an understanding of how policy decisions shape whether life-saving tools reach the people who need them. “Research can influence public health, institutional decision-making and the way our communities choose to respond to a crisis.”

That prompted Illamperuma to spend a summer working as a research student at Harvard Medical School and a fellow in Stanford’s Department of Medicine. He made a point of connecting with, and learning from, physicians, scientists and professors whose work contributes to public policy and health-system decision-making. “They notice gaps and then figure out how to close them.”

Inspired by the people he met, Illamperuma founded Illumina Health Lab in December 2025 heading into his final term of undergrad. He calls the interdisciplinary health equity research group a student think tank that brings together research at the intersection of medicine, preventative health, equity and artificial intelligence.

“Students don’t need to wait for a title, a degree or permission to begin making a difference. In our constant pursuit of becoming ‘qualified,’ we can easily forget that we’re capable of immediately contributing to the world around us.”

Illumina Health Lab has already published peer-reviewed research and forged connections with students and researchers across Canada and the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Australia, Nigeria, India and Sri Lanka. “This is about more than building a network – it’s about bringing global perspectives on medicine and clinical practice into research that can help move public health and policy forward. “

So how exactly did Illamperuma – a 2026 recipient of a MSU Students of Distinction Award – manage to launch a student group, co-lead a campus-wide project and be the founder of an international lab while still an undergrad?

He says a brief conversation after a class with Kristina Trim, an instructor in McMaster’s Bachelor of Health Sciences program, was a gamechanger. “Dr. Trim introduced me to the concept of brutal intentionality. To achieve a big goal or make a real difference, you need unwavering focus. If you’re doing something that doesn’t move you closer to your goal, why are you doing it? Don’t let yourself get pulled in all directions – find your path and stay on it.

“I used to reach out to anyone and everyone and say I can do this or that for you and help with whatever needed to be done. Now I only connect with faculty, postdocs and students who are doing work that I’m genuinely passionate about and I ask for mentorship opportunities and potential ways to collaborate. Their answer is almost always yes.”

Illamperuma graduates in June with an honours bachelor of science in kinesiology and finished his final year with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.