03/14/2022
*Please share*
This is hard for me to write. I need a living liver donor with blood type O+ or O– to donate at Toronto General Hospital (TGH).
For a person diagnosed with liver disease there is a long and difficult wait for a deceased donor. My health risk increases with time as my health declines. Sadly, some patients will die waiting. Every three days a person dies in Ontario because they don't get the lifesaving transplant they need.
Living liver donation is when a live person gives a portion of their liver to a candidate listed for a liver transplant. A living donor’s liver regenerates in just 6 to 10 weeks!
Anyone with blood type O+ or O- between the ages of 16 and 60 years and in good health (no diabetes, cancer, kidney or heart disease) can apply to be a living donor for me.
The donor does not need to be a relative or the same ethnicity (that matters for stem cells, not organs), just a healthy person with blood type O+ or O-.
The criteria for living organ donors is different than for blood donors. If you are not eligible to donate blood, you may still be able to be a living donor.
Since 1990, more than 1,000 living liver donor transplants have been done at TGH. All donors have returned to their regular lifestyle with no restrictions.
Candidates go through a comprehensive assessment to ensure they are healthy enough to donate.
For expenses like travel, food, accommodation and income replacement, there is a reimbursement program through Trillium Gift of Life for up to $5,500. They will reimburse expenses even if you get part-way through the screening process and change your mind or aren’t accepted. You can also submit receipts for reimbursement throughout the process and don’t need to wait until after the surgery. Visit:https://www.giftoflife.on.ca/resources/pdf/Post_April_1_2021_PRELOD_Brochure.pdf
With this gift from a living liver donor, I would enjoy my grandkids, family and friends. I would share their favourite things: baking and decorating cookies, biking, camping, roasting marshmallows around a campfire, rock climbing, baseball, gymnastics, swimming, “Gen Z” podcasts, reading and video games.
I would go to Germany to visit my son, his lovely spouse, and her family. I would go to Toronto to see my youngest sister and stepmother. I would visit my sister in Dorchester near the Bay of Fundy. I would visit my husband’s family on Lake of the Woods near the Manitoba border. I would visit my friends.
From an early age dance has been part of my life. Dance has connected me to like-minded persons through Modern Jazz at the Toronto Dance Collective and through T’ai Chi at the Dovercourt Recreation Centre.
Many years ago I attended Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa and Canadian Junior College Switzerland, then York University (B.A. History), uOttawa (Honours Classical Studies), Graduate studies at Carleton University in Culture, Family and Gender (Anthropology & Sociology M.A. & Ph.D. ABD), and finally Graduate and Post-Graduate Teaching Assistant & Sessional Lecturer at Carleton and Ottawa Universities.
During my career I worked as a Guidance Technician and Library Technician at several Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) elementary and high schools and was then an analyst with Statistics Canada in Ottawa for 20+ years.
👉👉 If you are interested in applying to become my living liver donor, please visit: https://www.uhn.ca/Transplant/Living_Donor_Program/Pages/living_liver_donor.aspx. There is an 11-page health history. Completing and submitting this health history is your application. 👈👈
Anyone can help by sharing my story.
If you’d like answers to any questions about living liver donation, contact:
Centre for Living Organ Donation at UHN
Phone: 416 340 5400
Email: livingorgandonation@UHN.ca
Website: https://www.uhn.ca/Transplant/Living_Donor_Program/Centre_for_Living_Organ_Donation
You can ask questions anonymously to learn more about living liver donation. Communications between a potential living donor and donor team are confidential and not shared with the recipient.
The UHN Centre for Living Donation hosts a monthly on-line information session for Potential Living Liver Donors. The next one is on Tuesday, March 22, 12-1 p.m.: https://www.eventbrite.ca/o/the-centre-for-living-organ-donation-at-uhn-18428442380.
There is also a Canadian Facebook group that may be helpful: Organ transplant recipients and living donors in Canada: https://www.facebook.com/groups/630523730672476
Please share this with anyone you know who might be willing to help. We will need someone brave and generous to give the gift of life.
Thank you so much to anyone who applies and spreads the word. I am deeply grateful to you.
